(Apologies for cross-posting) ------------------------------------ 6th Annual International Social Media & Society Conference Toronto, Canada July 27-29, 2015 http://SocialMediaAndSociety.com/ ------------------------------------ Call for Submissions Academic research on social media is growing exponentially across various disciplines including: Communications, Information / Library Science, Computer Science, Business, Sociology, Education, Psychology, Health and others. The Web of Science alone indexed nearly 5,000 journal and conference publications over the last decade. This growing body of research revealed many interesting factors about social media platforms, their users, and a glimpse of our society at large. But are we any closer to understanding the broader implications of social media on our increasing networked society? The 2015 Social Media & Society Conference (#SMSociety15) invites scholarly and original submissions that build on the previous work and critically evaluate the role of social media for social and political change, community engagement, marketing, new forms of governance, support of individuals and organizations in domains such as business, information, management, public administration, academia, health, and journalism (just to mention a few). We are also calling for submissions that develop and apply novel methods and theories to collect, analyze, and visualize social media data as well as those that discuss ethical and privacy implications of using big and small data. We welcome both quantitative and qualitative work in the broad area of Social Media & Society that crosses interdisciplinary boundaries and expands our understanding of the current and future trends in social media. Whether you are just starting a new research project or ready to report on the final results, you will find that #SMSociety15 is a great venue for you! The 2015 conference invites a wide range of submissions: - short papers on completed or well-developed projects (Due: March 2, 2015) - work-in-progress paper abstracts (Due: April 10, 2015), - panel discussions (Due: March 2, 2015) - poster presentations (Due: May 1, 2015). New to this year, we are also calling for proposals to host: - half-day workshops (Due: February 2, 2015) on a well-defined area or technical tutorials that will examine a particular method or tool for the analysis of social media data in more detail PUBLISHING OPPORTUNITIES All accepted short papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings by the ACM International Conference Proceeding Series (ICPS). Authors of accepted top papers will be invited to submit their full papers to the special issue of the Information, Communication & Society journal (published by Taylor & Francis). BACKGROUND The Social Media & Society Conference is an annual gathering of leading social media researchers from around the world. Now, in its 6th year, the 2015 Conference will be held in Toronto, Canada from July 27 to 29, 2015. From its inception, the conference has focused on the best practices for studying the impact and implications of social media on society. Organized by the Social Media Lab at Ryerson University, the conference provides attendees an opportunity to exchange ideas, present their original research, learn about recently completed and work-in-progress studies, and strengthen connections with their peers. The 2014 conference hosted over 200 attendees, featured research from 238 authors across several fields from 21 different countries. TOPICS OF INTEREST Social Media & Small Data • Case Studies of Online Communities Formed on Social Media • Case Studies of Offline Communities that Rely on Social Media • Sampling Issues • Value of Small Data Social Media & Big Data • Visualization of Social Media Data • Social Media Data Mining • Scalability Issues & Social Media Data • Social Media Analytics • Ethics of Big Data Social Media Impact on Society • Private Self/Public Self • The Sharing/Attention Economy • Virality & Memes • Political Mobilization & Engagement • Social Media & Health • Social Media & Business (Marketing, PR, HR, Risk Management, etc.) • Social Media & Academia (Alternative Metrics, Learning Analytics, etc.) • Social Media & Public Administration • Social Media & the News Theories & Methods • Qualitative & Quantitative Approaches • Opinion Mining & Sentiment Analysis • Social Network Analysis • Theoretical Models for Studying, Analysing and Understanding Social Media Online/Offline Communities • Trust & Credibility in Social Media • Online Community Detection • Influential User Detection • Online Identity Social Media & Mobile • App-ification of the Society • Privacy & Security Issues in the Mobile World • Apps for the Social Good • Networking Apps PROGRAM COMMITTEE The list of the Program Committee members is available at https://socialmediaandsociety.com/?page_id=1346 CONFERENCE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Anatoliy Gruzd Associate Professor, Ted Rogers School of Management Director, Social Media Lab Ryerson University, Canada Twitter: @gruzd Barry Wellman Professor & Director, NetLab University of Toronto, Canada Twitter: @barrywellman Philip H. Mai Manager of Academic Communications Ryerson University, Canada Twitter: @phmai Jenna Jacobson PhD Candidate, Faculty of Information (iSchool) University of Toronto, Canada Twitter: @jacobsonjenna For further inquiries, please contact Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd at gruzd@ryerson.ca