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Sign up for AoIR ONLINE ECR Workshop | FREE
by Asaf Nissenbaum 01 Oct '25

01 Oct '25

Dear AoIR members, Every year, we organize twin ECR workshops as an AoIR preconference, online and in-person. If you’re attending AoIR in person this October and meet the criteria for an ECR (you’ve been awarded a PhD, but have yet to be tenured), consider signing up for the event through the conference registration forms. However, if, much like us, you’re unable to make it to Niterói, but still want to get a taste of AoIR - sign up to take part in the ONLINE EARLY CAREER WORKSHOP, which we will hold on Monday, 13 October, between 11:30am and 2pm (UTC). Use this link to check the time in your timezone >>> https://everytimezone.com/s/70f8778d This preconference workshop brings early career scholars together to address unique issues they face, develop strategies to achieve career goals, and foster a professional network. As part of the session, we’ll be joined by senior internet scholars from across the globe: Prof. Crystal Abidin | Dr. Tetyana Lokot | Dr. Smith Mehta | Dr. Ashwin Nagappa | Dr. Peter Nagy | Prof. Usha Raman and Dr. Zoetanya Sujon The workshop will include a senior-scholar panel and small group discussions with workshop participants, in which the mentors will share from their experience in academia, offer some useful recommendations they might have, and answer questions brought up by participants regarding academic life and career. The idea for the online version is to allow those who cannot make it to Niterói to also benefit from and engage with the AoIR community – which, as you know, is particularly important for ECRs in underrepresented locations and the Global South. Sign up here by October 10, 2025: https://members.aoir.org/event-6359592. Note that you do need a current AoIR membership to register and attend the online workshop. See you there! Eedan Amit-Danhi and Asaf Nissenbaum, On behalf of the ECR workshop organizing committee -- Asaf Nissenbaum, PhD Lecturer in New Media and Digital Culture Media Studies Department University of Amsterdam (UvA)

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The 25th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2026): Third Call for Contributions to the Special Tracks
by Announce 01 Oct '25

01 Oct '25

*** Third Call for Contributions to the Special Tracks *** The 25th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2026) May 25-29, 2026, 5* Coral Beach Hotel & Resort, Paphos, Cyprus https://cyprusconferences.org/aamas2026/<http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/~george/GPLists_2021/lm.php?tk=YWlyLWwJCQlhaXItbEBs…> We welcome submissions to the Special Tracks of AAMAS 2026. AAMAS 2026 will feature five special tracks: AAAI Track, JAAMAS Track, Blue Sky Ideas Track, Demo Track, and Competitions Track, as well as the Doctoral Consortium. The AAAI Track welcomes AAAI-25 submissions rejected from the main AAAI track that are relevant to the AAMAS research community and received no reject review recommendations (all review scores are weak reject or above). The JAAMAS Track offers authors of papers recently published in the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (JAAMAS) that have not previously appeared as full papers in an archival conference the opportunity to present their work at AAMAS 2026. The focus of the Blue Sky Ideas Track is on visionary ideas, long-term challenges, new research opportunities, and controversial debate. The Demo Track allows participants from both academia and industry to showcase their latest developments in agent-based and robotic systems. The Competitions Track is an effective mechanism for motivating researchers to enhance discussions, share knowledge, and boost the development and evaluation of theory and practice of autonomous agents and multiagent systems. Finally, AAMAS invites PhD students working in the research areas covered by AAMAS to take part in the Doctoral Consortium (DC). The DC is an opportunity to interact closely with established researchers in your field as well as other PhD students to receive feedback on your work and to get advice on managing your career. The calls for each track above and for the Doctoral Consortium, along with the respective important dates, are available on the AAMAS 2026 web site. Workshops and Tutorials Furthermore, AAMAS 2026 invites proposals for workshops and tutorials. These will be held on May 25-26, 2026, immediately before the main program of the AAMAS conference. The objectives of the AAMAS 2026 workshop program are to stimulate and facilitate discussion, interaction, and comparison of approaches, methods, and ideas related to specific topics, both theoretical and applied, in the general area of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. The AAMAS 2026 workshops will provide an informal setting where participants will have the opportunity to discuss specific technical topics, fostering the active exchange of ideas and supporting community development. Tutorials will be half-day long and will be in person — online/remote versions will not be accepted. A few full-day tutorials may be considered, but the proponents need to motivate their request when submitting their proposal. The calls for workshop and tutorial proposals, along with the respective important dates, are available on the AAMAS 2026 web site. Organizing Committee AAMAS 2026 General Chairs • Viviana Mascardi, University of Genova, Italy • John Thangarajah, RMIT University, Australia AAMAS 2026 Program Chairs • Chris Amato, Northeastern University, United States of America • Louise Dennis, University of Manchester, United Kingdom AAMAS 2026 Local Chairs • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus (Chair) • Panayiotis Kolios, University of Cyprus, Cyprus (Vice Chair) If you have additional questions, please contact the Program Chairs using aamas2026pcs(a)gmail.com .

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Call for Papers ATIC Journal: Artificial Intelligence, Commons, and Collaboration
by Stéphan-Eloïse Gras 30 Sep '25

30 Sep '25

Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the upcoming issue of the *ATIC Journal *dedicated to the theme: *Artificial Intelligence, Commons, and Collaboration*. *Guest Editors:* - *Béa Arruabarrena*, CNAM – DICEN Laboratory - *Stéphan-Eloïse Gras*, CNAM – DICEN Laboratory *Important dates:* - *Deadline for abstract submission:* October 30, 2025 - *Notification of acceptance:* November 30, 2025 - *Full paper submission (30,000–50,000 characters):* April 1, 2026 - *Publication:* Summer 2026 Although the journal publishes in *French*, we welcome *submissions in English*. Further details, including the full call for papers and submission guidelines, are available here (in French): https://www.dicen-idf.org/intelligence-artificielle-communs-collaboratif/ We warmly invite contributions that engage critically with the intersections of artificial intelligence, commons, and collaborative practices. Sincerely, *Stéphan-Eloïse Gras* and *Béa Arruabarrena* Since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the media sphere has witnessed intense debates and passionate interventions from experts and scholars across diverse fields—computer science, linguistics, biology, statistics, ethics, law, among others. Each field feels directly implicated in the spread of so-called “generative” artificial intelligence technologies, which rely on connectionist deep learning techniques. The proliferation of these artefacts, commonly referred to as AI (by metonymy of the sub-discipline they originate from), tends to obscure the material and sociotechnical conditions of their production. Indeed, AI artefacts emerge from an often-overlooked assemblage of multiple computer engineering traditions: systems and network computing, robotics, software engineering, expert systems or symbolic AI, machine learning, and deep learning. The aim of this issue is precisely to analyze the composite and heterogeneous nature of AI artefacts, to take into account the social and organizational dynamics underlying their existence, and to question the very existence and regimes of AI “commons” (i.e., open datasets, models, or weights). Reducing AI to generic objects (as in the case of “general AI”; Julia, 2019), intelligent artefacts (Agostinelli & Riccio, 2023), or nominalist abstractions (Bachimont, 2014) conceals their composite character as well as the collective dynamics and power relations that bring them into being. Conversely, a sociotechnical perspective (Flichy, 2008) reveals that the making of AI artefacts rests on at least three simultaneous processes: (1) the elaboration of a global application perspective; (2) data collection, classification, and processing; and (3) practices and uses. Focusing on “frames of use” draws attention to alignment phases, where artefacts are adjusted for social acceptability or a “license to operate” (Alcantara & Charest, 2023). The sociotechnical approach thus highlights the inseparable social and technical, material and discursive dimensions of information and communication systems. This issue of ATIC calls for critical inquiry into the collective organizations—firms, research laboratories, public or nonprofit bodies, independent initiatives—responsible for the design and development of AI artefacts. In line with Taylor (2011) and from a pragmatic standpoint, attention is directed to the constitution of organizational forms that “make” AI: material operations, products, websites, statements, speech acts, and discursive practices enacted within situated contexts (Cooren, Brummans & Charrieras, 2008; Cooren, 2024). Such an approach also requires investigating the asymmetries resulting from the centralization of design and development in the hands of a few dominant actors, and their consequences for information and communication practices (Ertzscheid, 2023). The fragile “bigger is better” narrative has subjected AI to a purported “law of scale” (Varoquaux et al., 2024), in which the usefulness and performance of systems are conditioned by the sheer size of algorithmic architectures, characterized by trillions of parameters. Similarly, the design, training, and deployment of AI models—today largely dominated by a small number of private actors—limit possibilities for collective appropriation. This hyper-concentration directly conflicts with the logic of digital commons, which rests on openness, sharing, distributed governance, and the empowerment of user communities. AI as currently organized tends to consolidate regimes of exclusive property and unilateral surveillance (Zuboff, 2019), rather than foster co-production and the circulation of knowledge and technological tools. Accordingly, this issue of ATIC invites analysis of AI commons and their sharing regimes: negotiation spaces where AI must serve collective projects (Pene, 2017). Contributions are encouraged to address collaborative dynamics, including emerging forms of collaboration and participatory methodologies enabled by transdisciplinary approaches. Digital commons are defined as collectively produced and maintained digital resources, governed by rules that preserve their shared and collective character (Baudoin, 2023). These involve researchers, citizens, and public institutions confronting the complex challenges of AI commons (Fitzpatrick, 2019). Such an approach views AI artefacts as human productions dependent on collective resources and methodologies, serving a more collaborative economy (Benkler, 2011) grounded in open ecosystems (Bauwens, 2005). Collective, diverse frameworks have demonstrated their capacity to produce and regulate technologies as commons through shared governance. While research has documented the role of major corporations in the development of open-source projects such as Linux (Broca, 2013), the centrality and ambiguity of open-source artefacts (datasets, models, algorithmic architectures, weights, etc.) in contemporary generative AI calls for renewed attention. Engaging the notion of commons also foregrounds the ethical stakes of AI. Against utilitarian and accelerationist perspectives, which dominate discourses emphasizing efficiency and profitability (Bostrom, 2014; Tegmark, 2017) often at the expense of distributive justice and the most vulnerable (Rawls, 1987), a commons-based ethic, following Haraway (1988), Star (1999), Zacklad & Rouvroy (2022), highlights power relations and social asymmetries. It expands debates toward equity, social justice, and inclusion. Noble (2018) demonstrates how algorithmic biases reflect historical inequalities embedded in data and design choices, while participatory and open research approaches help mitigate systemic biases (Fitzpatrick, 2019). Open-source collectives thus provide concrete examples to examine both the potentials and the limits of this approach. In a similar vein, Floridi (2013) advocates deliberative processes where citizens, developers, regulators, and users co-develop ethical norms responsive to contemporary challenges. Finally, this issue of ATIC, by interrogating AI sociotechnics through the lens of collaboration and commons, invites reconsideration of the status of knowledge, content, and interactions produced by AI. Under what conditions can AI artefacts—language models, generative applications, datasets—be conceived as spaces of creation, collective intelligence, and experimentation, grounded in co-construction, mutualization, and regulation? We invite contributions from scholars across disciplines—information and communication sciences, sociology, anthropology, law, computer science, design—as well as from digital commons practitioners and communities. Submissions may be theoretical or empirical, provided they engage with the ways commons and collaboration reshape the AI landscape. *Suggested Themes* *Axis 1 – Sociotechnical approaches to AI artefacts* Exploring AI as sociotechnical systems by analyzing artefacts, infrastructures, and conditions of implementation. Contributions may address materiality, technical inscriptions, and collective arrangements that render AI operative, as well as issues of access inequalities, invisibilized labor, translation processes, and technological lock-in. Topics may include AI design processes, data corpus construction, language model use, open/expert agent interactions, or shared infrastructures such as Hugging Face, GitHub, and other platforms. Special attention may be given to opacity, standardization, and modularity that support large-scale collaboration, and to tensions between community innovation and dependence on dominant models. *Axis 2 – Collaborative and organizational dynamics of AI* Analyzing AI as organizational, collective, and experimental practice. This includes forms of coordination, cooperation, and governance in the design, development, and use of AI. Topics may cover organizational practices, skills, literacies, participatory AI methodologies, collaborative robotics, or emergent governance of digital commons, platforms, and data. Empirical studies documenting usages, experimental contexts, or organizational innovations are particularly welcome. *Axis 3 – Epistemological, ethical, and political issues* Critical and reflexive perspectives on AI’s knowledge regimes, ethics, and politics. Contributions may focus on discourses and practices around governance and digital sovereignty, the knowledge and norms structuring AI artefacts, or the asymmetries of power arising from data economies, computing infrastructures, or regulation. Submissions may explore resistance, counter-expertise, or citizen mobilizations (e.g., “Slow AI”, Data Detox), situated ethics, or the geopolitics and environmental costs of AI infrastructures. This axis also invites reflection on the conditions for commons-based AI that reshape relations between technology, power, and society. *Submission Guidelines* Submissions should include: - Author identity, institutional affiliation, and title on the first page; anonymized title and text on subsequent pages (doc/odt format). - A clear and explicit title. - An abstract (max. 3,000 characters, excluding references) outlining the research problem, theoretical framework, methodology, and expected results or contributions. - A list of references. *Timeline* - *Submission of proposals (max. 3,000 characters):* October 30, 2025 - *Notification of acceptance:* November 30, 2025 - *Full paper submission (30,000–50,000 characters):* April 1, 2026 - *Publication:* Summer 2026 Although the journal publishes in *French*, *submissions in English are welcome*. *Contact:* beatrice.arruabarrena(a)lecnam.net stephan-eloise.gras(a)lecnam.net revue(a)revue-atic.fr

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Generative AI to support literacy in education: an online talk
by Adi Kuntsman 30 Sep '25

30 Sep '25

Dear all Please join us for this online event, to celebrate the launch of National Literacy Trust’s new report, on the use of gen AI by teachers and young people, to support literacy . Digital Society Research Group will be hosting Irene Picton from the NLT to talk about their report, as part of our AI Literacies events and research. When: 10 October 11am-12noon UK time Where: online The event is free but registration is required. Details here : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/young-people-and-teachers-use-of-generative-ai… Adi

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KCL DDH The Digital Conference - CfP Deadline EXTENDED to 12th October
by g. tavmen 30 Sep '25

30 Sep '25

Dear colleagues,Due to demand, we have extended the deadline of abstract submission to 12th October, midnight, UK time.Please submit your abstract here: https://airtable.com/appMKXTaROaUV7FZh/pag4TJRiA6HYq7sCf/form Best wishes, Güneş Dr Güneş Tavmen Lecturer in Digital Infrastructures and Sustainability Department of Digital Humanities King’s College London KCL DDH The Digital Conference CALL FOR PAPERS Digital Humanities Today: Critical Inquiry with and about the Digital (23-26 June 2026) >From the 23rd to 26th June 2026, the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London will host an international conference exploring the evolving role of Digital Humanities in a world increasingly shaped by digital technologies. Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Centre for Computing Humanities officially becoming a department of KCL, and 15th anniversary of being renamed as Department of Digital Humanities in 2011, we welcome scholars from around the world to critically reflect on what ‘digital’ entails in today’s world. Digital technologies have transformed the ways we live, work, create, and connect. From online grassroots movements to open-source tools, from digital archives to experimental art and music created with code, the digital has become a vital part of how we express ourselves, tell stories, and shape our futures. In our daily lives, the digital enables new forms of community and care, especially for those historically excluded from institutional or geographic centres of power. But these same technologies have also raised urgent questions. There is a growing concern across various disciplines and communities. Recent political, environmental and technological developments have shown that we cannot afford to treat “the digital” as neutral. It is shaped by geographies, specificities, regulatory environments, sociocultural contexts, and linguistic hierarchies, which condition how digital technologies are produced, used, and experienced across the globe. From the resurgence of extremist ideologies and algorithmic manipulation of public discourse, to the exploitative dynamics of platform economies and the environmental costs of large-scale computing, the digital now permeates nearly every aspect of our lives. Artificial intelligence is being used against workers, stealing their creative outputs and triggering a race to the bottom of working conditions. In addition to the socio-political impact of generative AI models, the deleterious environmental effects are also becoming increasingly clear. At the same time, computational and digital methods have enabled new forms of collaborative, interdisciplinary, and public-facing humanities research. They are reshaping not only our methodological choices but also how we conceptualise methods themselves—prompting us to revisit questions of reliability and reproducibility. These methods offer powerful tools for analysis, visualisation, preservation, and dissemination, while also enriching humanities scholarship by scaling up our analyses and opening up new avenues of inquiry. Unlike the underlying code, “the digital” is never binary. This is why, more than ever, we need to come together to discuss and debate its implications. There is a long tradition of critical research on digital methods and other issues concerning “the digital” at King’s, dating back to the early 1970s. The Department of Digital Humanities, established as the Centre for Computing in the Humanities in 1992, has been a key site for this work. Today it is home to a wide range of approaches to developing and applying digital methods in the humanities, as well as to interrogating the broader social, cultural, and ethical dimensions of the digital. Building on over fifty years of innovation and critical inquiry, this event invites scholars, practitioners, and communities to reflect on the role of Digital Humanities as both a methodological practice and a lens to understand and shape the digital world. We invite proposals that explore (but are not limited to) the following themes: - Computational humanities and computing culture: computational history, music computing, geoanalytics, digital classics, computational linguistics, computational social science, cultural analytics, computational literary studies - Creative digital practice and the arts, music and the digital, arts-based methods - Design, Interfaces, and Interaction: UX/UI - Digital ecologies, environmental justice and sustainable digital futures - Digital gaming and play - Digital health, digital care, and transformation of the care industry - Digital knowledge and epistemologies and critical technical practices and digital methods - Digital labour and economies, platform studies - Digital media - Digital Research Infrastructures and funding - Embodiment and identity: the digital and the embodied, digital childhood & youth - Global and decolonial digital cultures, digital commons, digital audiences, creator cultures - Politics, power, and resistance in the digital age: digital politics, deplatformisation, the digital university, engaged digital research We welcome contributions from across the humanities and beyond, from those who use and interrogate digital tools and those who develop them. We invite proposals for paper presentations (max. 15 mins) and panels (max. 4 x 15 mins) with a title and an abstract of no longer than 300 words, along with a short biography, no longer than 50 words. You can submit proposals via THIS FORM until the deadline of 12/10/2025 till midnight UK time. We aim to notify acceptance of abstracts by 15.11.2025. Please note: The conference will be face-to-face only, with career plenary sessions instead of keynotes (a panel consisting of academics from every stage). We offer a limited number of conference fee waivers, as well as limited numbers of partial bursaries for travel and accommodation. We will provide more information on these and conference fees after acceptance of abstracts have been sent out. For any inquiries, please contact thedigitalconference(a)kcl.ac.uk.

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Upcoming webinar: The Rise of Bluesky – A new source for social media network research
by Alessandro Zonin 30 Sep '25

30 Sep '25

Dear AoIR Members, we’re excited to invite you to our upcoming webinar, *"The Rise of Bluesky: A New Source for Social Media Network Research"*, scheduled for *Thursday, October 16, from 7 – 9pm CEST*. This practical and up-to-date two-hour session will explain what Bluesky is and why it matters for researchers, demonstrate *Nodiux* <www.nodiux.net> a tool for end-to-end Bluesky data extraction and network analysis, and guide you through hands-one use cases. Key takeaways include: - Understanding how Bluesky and the AT Protocol open new, research-grade data streams - Using Nodiux to build a repeatable workflow for Bluesky data collection and SNA - Applying core network metrics and visuals to answer research questions - Producing clear, reusable outputs (graphs, tables, short reports) 📅 *Date*: Thursday, October 16 ⏰ *Time*: 7 – 9pm CEST 📍 *Register Here*: https://www.eventbrite.it/e/the-rise-of-bluesky-a-new-source-for-social-med… <https://www.eventbrite.it/e/the-rise-of-bluesky-a-new-source-for-social-med…> Apply the discount code *AIRONLY* to enjoy a 10% discount. Cannot attend? All registered participants will receive access to the recording <https://alessandrozonin.gumroad.com/>, so you can review the material anytime. I look forward to e-meeting you. Best, -- Alessandro Zonin Digital Data Stories <https://digitaldatastories.it> | Bluesky <https://bsky.app/profile/alezonin.bsky.social> | Nodiux <www.nodiux.net>

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The Annual ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2026): Last Call for Tutorial Proposals
by Announce 30 Sep '25

30 Sep '25

*** Last Call for Tutorial Proposals The Annual ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2026) March 23-26, 2026, 5* Coral Beach Hotel & Resort, Paphos, Cyprus https://iui.hosting.acm.org/2026/<http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/~george/GPLists_2021/lm.php?tk=YWlyLWwJCQlhaXItbEBs…> We are pleased to invite proposals for tutorials to be held in conjunction with the Annual International ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (ACM IUI 2026), Paphos, Cyprus. Tutorials aim to provide fundamental knowledge and experience on topics related to intelligent user interfaces and the intersection between Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). We welcome proposals for a wide range of *full-day*, *half-day* or *quarter-day* tutorial formats and activities, that provide a structured instruction on topics aligned with the conference theme, such as HCI methods, AI techniques, methodological frameworks, tools, labs or hands-on experiences for building intelligent user interfaces. Review and Oversight by Tutorial Chairs Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by the Workshop and Tutorial Chairs. Tutorial summaries will be included in the ACM Digital Library for ACM IUI 2026. Responsibilities of Tutorial Organizers • Create and maintain a dedicated website with Tutorial information. The IUI Website 2026 will link to this page. • Facilitate the planned activities, including, discussions, and/or interactive elements. • Submit a tutorial summary for inclusion in the ACM Digital Library. Proposal Format Tutorial proposals should be a maximum of four pages long (single-column format). Prepare your submission using the latest templates: Word Submission Template (https://authors.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/publications/taps/acm_submi…<http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/~george/GPLists_2021/lm.php?tk=YWlyLWwJCQlhaXItbEBs…>), or the LaTex Template (https://authors.acm.org/proceedings/production-information/preparing-your-a…<http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/~george/GPLists_2021/lm.php?tk=YWlyLWwJCQlhaXItbEBs…>). For Latex, please use “\documentclass[manuscript,review]{acmart}”. The proposals should be organized as follows: • Name and title: A one-word acronym and a full title. Please indicate “(Tutorial)” after the title. • Abstract: A brief summary of the tutorial. • Description of tutorial topic: Should discuss the relevance of the proposed topic to IUI and its interest for the IUI 2026 audience. Include a concise discussion of why this tutorial is particularly relevant for the intended audience and how it will complement and enhance topics covered at the main conference. • Previous history: List of previous tutorials on this topic, including the conferences that hosted them and the number of participants. • Organizer(s): Names, affiliations, emails, and web pages of the organizer(s). Provide a brief description of the background of the organizer(s). Strong proposals normally include organizers who bring differing perspectives on the topic and are actively connected to the communities of potential participants. Please provide a list of other tutorials organized by the organizers in the past. • Participants: Include a statement of how many participants you expect and how you plan to invite participants for the tutorial. If possible, include the names of at least 10 people who have expressed interest in participating in the tutorial. • Tutorial activities: A brief description of the format regarding the mix of events or activities, such as hands-on practical exercises, and general discussion. Please also list here any materials you will make available to tutorial participants, such as slides, access to hardware or software, and handouts. • Planned outcomes of the tutorial: What are you hoping to achieve by the end of the tutorial? Please list here any planned publications or other outcomes expected. • Length: Full-day or half-day or quarter-day proposals (the latter roughly 1.5 hours). Submission Platform • All materials must be submitted electronically to PCS 2.0 http://new.precisionconference.com/~sigchi<http://www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/~george/GPLists_2021/lm.php?tk=YWlyLWwJCQlhaXItbEBs…> by the proposal submission deadline. • In PCS 2.0, first click "Submissions" at the top of the page, from the dropdown menus for society, conference, and track, select "SIGCHI", "IUI 2026", and then “IUI 2026 Tutorials”, respectively, and press "Go". We encourage both researchers and industry practitioners to submit tutorial proposals. Prospective organizers are encouraged to contact the Workshop and Tutorial Chairs in advance (workshops2026(a)iui.acm.org) to discuss ideas, receive feedback, or seek assistance in preparing engaging proposals. Important Dates (AoE) • Tutorial Proposals: October 17, 2025 • Tutorial Decision Notification: November 21, 2025 Workshop and Tutorial Chairs Karthik Dinakar, Pienso, USA Werner Geyer, IBM Research, USA Patricia Kahr, University of Zurich, Switzerland Antonela Tommasel, CONICET, Argentina

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Paper: Contractual Override: How Private Contracts Undermine the Goals of the Copyright Act for Libraries and Researchers, and What We Can Do About It
by Joly MacFie 30 Sep '25

30 Sep '25

Contractual Override: How Private Contracts Undermine the Goals of the Copyright Act for Libraries and Researchers, and What We Can Do About It https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5393510 *A wide variety of scholarly and academic uses of copyrighted materials are governed not by copyright law itself but by licenses, terms of service, and other privately crafted contractual terms. In many cases, those terms purport to override exceptions and limitations granted by Congress in the Copyright Act for the benefit of users. As compared to other jurisdictions, the US does not have clear statutory provisions preventing private contracts from overriding certain user rights-rights that are meant to support innovation, teaching, research, and preservation, and designed to strike a careful balance between the interests of the public and copyright owners. Allowing contracts to upset this balance risks granting copyright owners excessive control at the public's expense, ultimately stifling innovation, creativity and the free expression rights of subsequent authors. This paper is about the harm caused by contractual override to two of the most vulnerable and impacted user groups-academic researchers and libraries, and ways to limit that harm.* -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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Special Issue Call for Papers: Shaping the Future of the Information Society: WSIS+20 and Beyond
by Nadia Tjahja 29 Sep '25

29 Sep '25

Dear all, Apologies for cross-posting. Policy & Internet has launched a special issue call for papers on the topic of “Shaping the Future of the Information Society: WSIS+20 and Beyond”, edited by Prof. Dr. Jonathon Hutchinson (University of Sydney) and Nadia Tjahja (United Nations University-CRIS and Free University of Brussels). We invite papers that explore: Governance Modalities and Stakeholder Dynamics We welcome papers that critically examine the evolving architecture of Internet governance, key questions include: * Modes of Governance and Participation: Analyses of the WSIS+20 Review process, including its modalities, elements and drafts. * Stakeholder Inclusion and Participation Models: Reviewing how the Global Digital Compact (GDC) and WSIS have approached multistakeholderism, inclusion and diversity in its processes. * Meta-participation in Digital Governance: Exploring second-order stakeholder engagement – where stakeholders not only participate in processes, but actively shape the process itself * Norm Development and Frameworks: Studies on the alignment and adoption of the SDGs, Sao Paulo Principles, the GDC Frameworks and ROAM-X as normative anchors. * Multilateralism and Multistakeholderism: Reviewing the interplay between multilateralism andmultistakeholderism * Global and regional multistakeholderism: Evaluating tensions, synergies and practical implications in decision-making Institutional Futures in Internet Governance We invite contributions that address the evolution and future of key institutions shaping Internet governance: * Preserving and Evolving the IGF: The future of multistakeholder governance through the IGF and its potentially renewed mandate * Developing Institutional Architectures: Reevaluating the changing role of different offices such as the UN Tech Envoy’s office/ODET, and proposals for new bodies for future governance. * Evolving institutions: Reflecting on ICANN’s role in the evolving governance ecosystems and its place in future frameworks. * Governing Artificial Intelligence: Proposals for new spaces or mechanisms to coordinate global AI governance across stakeholders. User-centric Perspectives in Internet Governance: Exploring Internet use and its socioeconomic consequences We invite contributions that are user-centric and/or address topics related to the WSIS Action Lines: * Digital Inclusion and Equity * User rights * Behavioural and psychological impacts * Economic and labour transformations * Education * Cultural and language diversity * Data sovereignty * Topics related to the WSIS Action Lines Submission Guidelines: Please send through your title and 300-word abstract to Jonathon Hutchinson [jonathon.hutchinson(a)sydney.edu.au] and Nadia Tjahja [nadia.tjahja(a)vub.be] with the subject line: “Policy & Internet Special Issue” by 2 November 2025. * Abstracts: up to 300 words * Abstract deadline: 2 November * Full papers: 6000-8000 words * Full paper Deadline: 1 March 2026 Kind regards, Nadia Tjahja, PhD Vrije Universiteit Brussel | Brussels School of Governance | Adjunct Professor & Postdoctoral Researcher https://brussels-school.be/research/digitalisation-democracy-and-innovation United Nations University – CRIS | Co-Coordinator of the Digital Governance Cluster www.cris.unu.edu<http://www.cris.unu.edu/> YOUthDIG Coordinator, European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG)<https://www.eurodig.org/> European Regional Editor, Policy & Internet Journal (P&I<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19442866>)

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The Critical AI Centre (CrAIC) launch, University of Exeter (hybrid), 8th October
by Gildersleve, Patrick 29 Sep '25

29 Sep '25

Dear all, We are pleased to invite you to join us for the launch of the Critical AI Centre (CrAIC) in the department of Communications, Drama and Film at the University of Exeter on Wednesday October 8th. We hope this will be of interest to members of this list! Scholars from around the world will gather to share their approaches to the rise of AI and its effects on multiple academic disciplines. If you would like to join us for a hybrid public roundtable, please sign up at the link below. We also ask that if you would like to participate in the Q and A for the roundtable, you will find a space in the Eventbrite page to ask a question regarding how AI might be affecting your work as a scholar or perhaps any other questions you might have for the scholars about the stakes of AI today. We look forward to seeing you soon. This event is supported by Project ADA at the University of Exeter. WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 8th 14:00-15:00 BST The Critical AI Centre Launch Roundtable REGISTER HERE FOR HYBRID ATTENDANCE AND Q/A<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-critical-ai-centre-launch-roundtable-ticke…> Chairs Andrea Medrado, Brett Zehner, and Patrick Gildersleve, University of Exeter Contributors * Benedetta Brevini, University of Sydney * Gabriel Pereira, University of Amsterdam * Mona Elswah, University of Exeter * Scott Wark, Goldsmiths, University of London * Peaks Krafft, University of Edinburgh * Becca Lewis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology * Phoebe Moore, University of Essex * Thomas Dekeyser, University of Southampton * Hanne Stegeman, University of Exeter We also thank our workshop speakers who will be unable to attend the public lecture: * Hanan Badr, University of Salzburg * Mél Hogan, Queen's University * Sarah Shugars, Rutgers University * Milagros Miceli, Weizenbaum Institute * Dan McQuillan, Goldsmiths, University of London Feel free to also connect with over Bluesky: @craicexeter.bsky.social<https://bsky.app/profile/craicexeter.bsky.social> Email: craic(a)exeter.ac.uk<mailto:craic@exeter.ac.uk> All the best, Patrick, Brett, and Andrea _________________________________ Dr Patrick Gildersleve (he/him) Lecturer in Communications and Artificial Intelligence University of Exeter @gildersleve🔗🌳<https://linktr.ee/gildersleve>

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