*2017 International Conference on* *Deliberation and Decision Making (DDM 2017)* *Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Civic Tech* *June 23-24, 2017* *Singapore* The 2017 International Conference on Deliberation and Decision Making (DDM 2017) will bring together researchers and practitioners who focus on deliberation and decision making – in individuals, groups, organizations, communities, governments, and machines. For historical, institutional, and other reasons, deliberation and decision making researchers have been separated into different academic enclaves, sometimes debating but often talking past each other across disciplinary divide, with different definitions, assumptions, and methodologies getting in the way of knowledge accumulation and mutual understanding. This has not served the world of practice very well, and DDM 2017 aims to address these divisions by calling together researchers and practitioners from interdisciplinary perspectives in one conference, to explore, analyze and reflect on these perspectives and to find common ground. The conference aims to discuss specific theoretical and practical advances from a number of disciplinary perspectives (such as behaviour science, communication, computer science, decision science, human-computer interaction, information science, political science, policy studies, and more). It is organized by key experts in the field and is supported by an interdisciplinary programme committee. The conference organizers hope to produce a series of DDM conferences in the coming years. For this first one, we have chosen to focus on *Civic Tech*, which is technology that opens up government or is used for community action. Online Deliberation was one of the earliest visions of using ICTs towards civic ends. As ICTs developed over years, efforts to promote civic engagement through technologies have been broadened to many other non-deliberation based activities, which can be grouped under the concept of *Civic Tech*. These developments challenge the presumptions of what online deliberation is about and contribute to innovations in the field. DDM 2017 follows in a line of previous high-level scientific conferences that have focused on Online Deliberation, but with the intention of broadening the focus to explicitly include *decision making*, and specifically, *Civic Tech* that supports DDM. The DDM 2017 conference focuses on, but is not limited to, the following topics: - links between *theories* of collective decision making (such as deliberative democracy, behavior sciences, decision sciences) and technologies (such as crowdsourcing, argument visualization, and big data); - current *research* on civic techs that enable deliberation and decision making both online and face to face; research challenges posed for researchers, governments, communities and citizens in applying technologies for civic purposes; - civic tech *interventions* using novel settings, modes or approaches; and descriptions of tools and techniques that are already being tested or fielded; case studies in applying and evaluating civic tech in various formal and informal engagement domains *Guidelines for papers and other submissions * The conference allows for four distinct types of submissions: 1. Research papers 2. Exploratory papers on ongoing research and innovative projects 3. Technology demonstrators 4. Panels on pertinent issues *Research papers * These papers should have a strong focus on scientific rigour and may be a maximum of 20 pages (excluding references, tables/figures, and appendix). Papers in this track will be peer reviewed for rigour, relevance, originality and clarity of presentation. Abstracts or incomplete papers will not be accepted. *Exploratory papers *These papers describe novel concepts, works-in-progress, reflections, manifestos or other ideas and issues that are not currently suitable for a complete research paper. They may be a maximum of 5 pages. Papers in this section will also be peer reviewed, but the focus is on relevance more than scientific rigour. *Technology demonstrators * Proposals for technology demonstrators (two pages) should include a description of the demo, objectives, examples of testing and application and, if possible, a URL where the technology can be viewed. *Panels * Proposals for panels (two pages) should include motivation, objectives, expected outcomes, approach to audience interaction and panel members. Panels are currently planned to be 1.5 hours long. Panels proposal will also be peer reviewed. All submissions must be made via the conference submission system web site. Submissions should be written in English and non-English speakers are encouraged to have their submissions reviewed for language prior to submission. Submissions should be formatted using 12 point Times-Roman font on A4 sized paper. Accepted research and exploratory papers should be revised according to reviewer comments and resubmitted by the deadline. *Publication options * Option 1: Both research papers and exploratory papers are eligible for inclusion in a conference proceeding. Option 2: Research papers are eligible for inclusion in a journal special issue. A further selection process will be implemented. *Sponsored by:* Ministry of Education of Singapore through National University of Singapore *Local Chairs:* Weiyu Zhang, Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore Simon Perrault, Yale-NUS, National University of Singapore *Research Papers and Panels Chairs: * Anna Przybylska, Center for Deliberation, University of Warsaw, Poland Todd Davies, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, USA *Exploratory Papers and Technology Demonstrators Chairs: * Lu Xiao, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, USA Tatsuro Sakano, Department of Social Engineering, Tokyo Technical University, Japan *Contact Details:* For further information please email: 2017ddm@gmail.com *Submission site (open on January 1, 2017):* https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ddm2017 *Important Dates* January 1 2017 Submission system available *March 15, 2017* *Research papers & panel proposals due* *March 30, 2017* *Exploratory papers & technology demonstrators due* April 30, 2017 Notices of acceptances May 1, 2017 Registration begins *May 30, 2017* *Revised research and exploratory papers due* June 23 – 24, 2017 Conference -- Weiyu Zhang (PhD, UPenn) Associate Professor Department of Communication and New Media National University of Singapore