** Please pass this message on to colleagues and lists to whom it would be of interest. Thank you! ** 2003 International Summer Conference on Communication and Technology in Finland The Informing Science Institute, the Partnership for Progress on the Digital Divide, the National Communication Association, and the Pori Unit of the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration will be sponsoring an International Summer Conference on communication and technology in Pori, Finland, June 24-27, 2003. The purpose of the conference is to spur debate and increase understanding to meet the challenges and explore the opportunities posed by the new Information Age, and to reach out in innovative ways to seek partnerships and solutions that bridge gaps in knowledge, expertise, and interdisciplinary cooperation. The topic areas to be considered range from the digital divide to misinforming and misinformation. Further details are available at the conference web site: http://www.is2003.org. In addition to lunches, coffee, tea, and snack breaks, and guided walking tours of the city during the day, the conference features an informal welcoming reception, a banquet with music at a traditional Finnish restaurant by the river, and a reception at City Hall hosted by the City of Pori. The conference will be held at the Pori Unit of the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration. Pori is on the West coast of Finland, about 120 km (or 75 miles) north of Turku and 240 km (or 150 miles) north-west of Helsinki. The main part of Pori, a peaceful city of 75,000, is about eight blocks square, so it is easy to walk almost everywhere. Traffic is light, and many people ride bicycles. It is easy to reach Pori from either Helsinki or Turku by air, bus, train, or rental car, or even ferry from Sweden via Turku. A trip is planned on Saturday, the day after the conference, to nearby Yyteri Beach, a sandy beach known as the "Finnish Riviera," with a water slide and a hiking trail along the shore, and/or Reposaari, a small fishing village unspoiled by tourism. Convention attendees will also be able to participate in a post-conference study trip to the University of Lapland above the Arctic Circle, land of the Midnight Sun and Northern Lights. You can learn more about Finland at http://www.genealogia.fi/finnlinks/ and http://virtual.finland.fi/. Submission Instructions The language of the conference is English. All submissions should be original and not currently under review by any other publication or conference since the author(s) will need to transfer copyright to the organizers before the paper can be published. All submissions will undergo blind review by three or more referees. It may be useful to review papers presented at IS2002, which can be found at http://2002.insite.nu. All accepted papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings and selected papers will appear in the journal _Informing Science: International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline_ or the _Journal of Information Technology Education_. Quality papers on the special conference topics of Misinforming/Misinformation and Bias will be fast tracked for inclusion in a special issue of Informing Science and/or a book. Below are the specific requirements for each type of submission, followed by the general requirements for all submissions. Research Papers--Research papers should be submitted as complete papers. Papers should include a description of the context of use, the relevant publics involved, the problem, and the proposed solution, if appropriate. Original thinking is valued. Papers typically are less than 20 pages long (about 5000 words). Research papers must be original and unpublished. Interactive Papers, Discussion Papers, and Practical Papers--Shorter papers (at least 8 pages) of Research-in-Progress, Interactive, Discussion, and Practical matters are also welcome. These let you share the progress you have had to date and receive constructive feedback midstream in your research. Panel Discussions--Proposals for panels that synthesize and orient work in the area are encouraged, especially those that cross disciplinary boundaries. Panel proposals should define an issue, list proposed panel members, their backgrounds, and their basic positions. Panel proposals should be written as extended abstracts that are approximately two pages long. Panels should provide for interaction among members and with the audience and should not consist of a series of independent mini-papers. Submissions will be accepted via the web at http://submit.insite.nu (or email, if your web access is limited). Please review http://www.is2003.org for complete details on submission, including formatting instructions. If you would like to be part of a panel submission, but cannot put one together, we will try to match up presenters with similar interests and submit the resulting panels. To participate, please email a Word attachment containing a 75-word abstract of your topic, a 50-word bio, and your complete contact information by 5 p.m. ET on November 26, 2002 to both docrod99@hotmail.com and susankretchmer@yahoo.com. Authors may appear at most on two papers, or one paper and one panel. For an accepted paper to appear on the program and in the proceedings, at least one author must register by the presenters' registration deadline. All members of panels must register by the presenters' registration deadline. Volunteer to Review Submissions Please volunteer your expertise as a paper reviewer for the 2003 International Summer Conference and, thereby, become a member of the Conference Program Committee. Sign up at: http://volunteer.InSITE.nu. Sponsorships Various levels of Academic Departmental Sponsorship are available beginning at $500. All sponsors will be acknowledged in the conference literature and websites. Higher levels of support will also be acknowledged on the Conference Carry Case. Interested institutions should contact both Susan Kretchmer (susankretchmer@yahoo.com) and Rod Carveth (docrod99@hotmail.com). Important Dates Abstract or paper submission November 30, 2002 Author notification February 15, 2003 Final paper due (MS Word or RTF) & presenter's registration deadline March 15, 2003 Conference Period June 24-27, 2003 Study Trip to the Artic Circle June 29-July 3, 2003 Further details about the conference are available at the IS2003 web site: http://www.is2003.org. Please contact both Susan Kretchmer (susankretchmer@yahoo.com) and Rod Carveth (docrod@hotmail.com) with any questions. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com