Sorry for cross-posting CALL FOR PAPERS for the Virtual Communities minitrack Forty Annual Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-40) January 3-6, 2007 Hilton Waikoloa Village, Big Island Additional detail may be found on HICSS primary web site: http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu Virtual Communities have been studied from a variety of different perspectives and disciplines. Examples range from political communities, communities of interest, communities of relationship, and gaming communities to communities of transactions. Community building and community management can be a key success factors in the digital economy and society. They can either supplement existing or even represent new business models in the digital economy. The communities we target may be constituted as Internet shops, portal sites, educational, groupware systems, electronic auctions, billboards, peer-to-peer file sharing infrastructures, enterprises or organizations, social communities and more. Online communities differ in their orientation. Nevertheless, there are common features which all types of communities share: common interests, practices, languages and ontologies with common semantics as well as normative issues. Communities are a sociological phenomenon. They can foster a social atmosphere for interactions, relationships and transactions. We call for papers that address communities as a social and business phenomenon. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: - Social, political and economic impact of Virtual Communities - Communities as a sociological phenomenon in the digital economy - Sense of community - Community-related business models, services and best practices and lessons learned - Management and organizational behavior of communities - Transaction-oriented Virtual Communities, Customer collaboration - Peer-to-Peer or mobile services for Virtual Communities - Personalization and use of customer profiles - Recommendation systems - Case studies and topologies of Online Communities - Design principles for community platforms - Formal or semi-formal models of communities and their platforms: Conceptual frameworks, Organizational models, Cognitive models, Multi-agent systems, Formalizations MINITRACK CHAIR: Karine Barzilai-Nahon Assistant Professor The Information School University of Washington Mary Gates Hall, Room 370B, Box 352840 Seattle, WA 98195-2840, Tel- (206) 685-6668 Email - karineb@u.washington.edu Website - www.ischool.washington.edu/karineb IMPORTANT DEADLINES Abstract Authors may contact Minitrack Chair for guidance and indication of appropriate content at anytime. June 15 Authors submit full papers to the Peer Review System, following Author Instructions found on the HICSS web site (www.hicss.hawaii.edu). Papers undergo a double-blind review. August 15 Acceptance/Rejection notices are sent to Authors via the Peer Review System. September 15 Authors submit Final Version of papers to the Peer Review System web site. The Virtual Community minitrack is part of the Internet & the Digital Economy Track Co-chaired by David King (david.king@jda.com) and Alan Dennis (ardennis@indiana.edu) ------------------------------------------------------------- Karine Barzilai-Nahon Assistant Professor The Information School University of Washington Mary Gates Hall, Room 370B, Box 352840 Seattle, WA 98195-2840 (206) 685-6668, http://www.ischool.washington.edu/karineb