Posted on behalf of the conference organizers, this conference may be of interest to members of the AoIR community: IFIP WG 9.5 International Working Conference on Virtuality and Society: Massive Virtual Communities Organizers: Niki Panteli, Martin Warnke Date: July 1st and 2nd, 2008 Place: Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Germany Scope & Theme Prominently within the gaming community, but also within other communities on the internet, very huge virtual communities begin to evolve. In games, an average number of people that is comparable to a smaller city is online at the same time, thus forming a proper society. People share their pictures and videos, they meet and date in virtual communities. In Second Life, even big companies start virtual branches to enhance customer relations. It is likely that this phenomenon will become even more significant in the near future for gaming, for business and private purposes, maybe even for administrative and political functions. It is already obvious that those massive virtual communities will have a substantial impact on society, economics, art, and -last but not least -technology. The workshop will bring together experts of that field to collect insights on a emerging major subject. Program committee Wolfgang Coy (Humboldt University Berlin, D) Velvet Landingham (Kent State University Geauga, USA) Niki Panteli (University of Bath, UK) Claus Pias (University of Vienna, A) Bryan K. Temple (Glasgow Caledonian University, UK) Martin Warnke (Leuphana University Lueneburg, D) The papers are published online as preprints. A book publication is intended. Important dates Deadline for full papers (previously unpublished material, not exceeding 12 pages single spaced, pdf format: January 15th, 2008, to be sent by e-mail to warnke@uni-lueneburg.de Notification of acceptance: March 15th, 2008 Conference fee: 100 Euro including an evening program at the first day of the conference and coffee breaks Venue Lueneburg is a smaller city in northern Germany, near Hamburg. It has a lively university and a medieval city centre. The famous Lueneburg heath is not far away. There will be a limited number of hotel rooms at special rates when booked early. Details on http://www.leuphana.de/ifip_mass_virt_comm/accommodation Sponsored by IFIP 9.5 Working Group "Virtuality and Society" http://www.ifip95wg.org/ Co-sponsored by the Gesellschaft fuer Informatik e. V., Section Computers and Society, Working Group "Computers as Media" Immediately afterwards, at July 3rd to 5th 2008, the Working Group "Computers as Media" will have its annual Workshop "HyperKult 17" at the same location.