Call for Papers IRIE: International Review of Information Ethics Issue No. 008; Vol. 8; December 2007 Special Issue: Ethical Challenges of Ubiquitous Computing Ubiquitous Computing (an idea introduced by Mark Weiser, and often bracketed with slight modifications under the concepts of Pervasive Computing or Ambient Intelligence) imagines, in the extreme case, the entire mesosphere saturated by ICT. In this fantasy, ICT will accompany all aspects of our life. Our everyday world will be made intelligent, and all our actions, at all times and everywhere, will undergo some kind of ICT support. We will be appropriately guided, monitored, and provided with our needs and desires. More prosaically, Ubiquitous Computing systems generally consist of interlinked capacities for memory and data storage, for perception and environmental sensing, and for the interpretation of contexts and situations. These activities might be carried out using various kinds of technology. And indeed, a whole host of technical research fields are working toward this goal, from mechatronics to materials science, from network engineering to computing and AI research. And of course, ubiquity or omnipresence will never be total. For technical, economic, and other reasons, there will only be pockets where Ubiquitous Computing systems come into effect. Nevertheless, the present research scenarios entail applications which will have more or less impact on every domain of life, from leisure, jobs, and health care to domestic policing and war. Any ethical discussion of Ubiquitous Computing is inherently problematic because we are dealing with emergent technology. We must take into account its potential, without knowing how far this potential can be realised in detail, and without knowing the fields in which pervasive ICT will find acceptance. Nevertheless, any research program that may so radically infiltrate our daily life requires some kind of ethical framework, to complement and counterbalance economic and militaristic motivations, and to provide direction with respect both to traditional values and to our hopes for the future. The case of Ubiquitous Computing brings into sharper focus two key problems in theoretical ethics that have already attained a special position in applied media ethics: on the one hand, determining the reality which will be influenced with our acting, and on the other hand, determining the subject to whom these actions will be attributed and who will intervene in reality. In certain sense we may say that Ubiquitous Computing diminishes the confrontational character of reality. Ubiquitous Computing environments will necessarily perceive and act upon subjects as ideal types, or stereotypes. Situations may be reduced to typical moments. Ambivalence and ambiguity may be lost. Moreover, the more invisible, pervasive, and transparent these systems become, the more they disappear and are taken for granted, the harder they will be to confront. If the mechanisms by which these systems produce and ascribe identities, situations, and contexts are unavailable for engagement by the subjects of the system, then those subjects may lose the skills and resources necessary to negotiate the construction of these identities, situations, and contexts. It may simply become necessary to accept the system’s reification of the typical. The experience of the world and the self will therefore undergo a transformation in intelligent environments. This gives rise to countless ethical issues whose analysis must go hand in hand with the development of such systems. The key questions just posed must be supplemented by additional specific problems, concerning, for instance, the anonymous generation of cognition, possible changes in the ethos of cognition, privacy and the formation of trust in intelligent worlds, and finally, the context sensitivity of the system and the related intrusion in our sphere of understanding. The 7th issue of IRIE will tackle the ethical challenge of ubiquitous systems and therefore furnish a contribution to the establishment of an ethics of Ubiquitous Computing. This ethics is anchored in the field of media ethics, yet it may call into question the fundamental issues in this field, insofar as the entire mesosphere appears as disposed to such media. Thus, the boundaries between media and the what they mediate may be radically questioned. Deadlines Deadline for submission abstracts: June 15, 2007 Notification of acceptance to authors: August 15, 2007 Deadline for submission of full articles: November 15, 2007 Publication: December, 2007 Possible Topics The production of reality (as concrete contents) and the production of Wirklichkeit (as opposed to the individual and an embedding of reality) - Medialization of the physical world - Interpretation of reality and environments using context sensitive and adaptive systems - Modelling of acting and behaviour through context sensitive and adaptive systems Privacy, Surveillance, Trust - Privacy in intelligent interactive environments - Surveillance, data protection and personal freedom - Ubiquitous systems and trust Manufacturing of the Acting Subject - Identity formation in intelligent environments - The Other in intelligent environments - Self-perception in intelligent environments Cognition in intelligent environments - Generating cognition in intelligent environments - Anonymous generation of cognition and cognitive acquisition - Transformation of the cognitive ethos Problems of Ubiquitous Computing in special fields of application - Health Care - Economy and work - Living in a smart home (and other fields …) Rules of the game Potential authors must provide an extended abstract (max. 1500 words) by 31/05/2007. The abstract can be written in the mother tongue of the author though an English translation of this abstract must be included if the chosen language is not English. IRIE will publish articles in English, French, German, Portuguese or Spanish. The author(s) of contributions in French, Portuguese, or Spanish must nominate at least two potential peer reviewers. The abstracts will be selected by the guest editors. The authors will be informed of acceptance or rejection by 15/08/2007. Deadline for the final article (3.000 words or 20.000 characters including blanks) is 15/11/2007. All submissions will be subject of a peer review. Therefore the acceptance of an extended abstract does not imply the publication of the final text unless the article passed the peer review. For more information about the journal see: http://www.i-r-i-e.net Contact PD Dr. habil. Klaus Wiegerling (Universität Stuttgart, D), Prof. Ph. D. David Phillips (University of Toronto) manage the special issue as guest editors. Please send the extended abstracts by e-mail to both of them: Prof. Dr. David Phillips, davidj.phillips@utoronto.ca PD. Dr. habil. Klaus Wiegerling, wiegerlingklaus@aol.com -- David J. Phillips Associate Professor, Faculty of Information Studies University of Toronto 140 St. George Street Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G6 CANADA (+1) 416-978-7098 (voice) / 416-971-1399 (fax)