THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE IRRELEVANT:

The user and the future of information and communication technologies

A transdisciplinary, proactive and collaborative knowledge-building conference organised by COST Action 269

University of Art and Design, Helsinki (Finland)

3-5 September 2003

INTRODUCTION

Technology is one of the key elements contributing to rapid global change. Whether we are interested in developing technology, or studying its relationship with people and everyday life, or seeking to benefit from the potential it creates, or worried over its consequences, we can hardly overlook its role in the shaping of our future. But what can we say of the direction and meaning of this development?

Through the four themes,

• the extended human • users as innovators • dealing with diversity • the reconfiguration of society

the organisers of this conference want to focus the attention of an interdisciplinary community on some of the key arenas where the future relationship of people and new digital technology and its applications are being negotiated.

Often the most advanced technology and its potential but yet unforeseen applications are discussed only within the communities of the technology specialists, while the critics, users and policy makers convene in their own respective circles, each with their own traditions, languages, and agendas. Unfortunately, these communities seldom meet in an organised fashion, and when they do, they often suffer from language and cultural clashes that tend to hamper interdisciplinary encounters.

In this conference, the organisers - the COST Action 269 - invite technology and product developers, designers, social scientists, policy makers, community representatives and others who are interested in the conference topics, to join an attempt to develop the discussion on a common, shared and transdisciplinary ground. We ask participants to

1) strive to present their topic from a human centric point of view as opposed to a technology, product or business centric one, and to

2) present in a language that attempts to transcend disciplinary boundaries, a language that non-experts can also understand, and to

3) not only report on their work, but also to engage in the conference debate which aims to develop ways to understand the interests of people and society, to evaluate developments against such evolving understanding, and to chart interesting and desirable future directions.

The emphasis of this event will be on networking and promoting a dialogue with colleagues from around Europe and the rest of the world. The event itself will be augmented with online discussion before and after the conference.

We look forward to seeing you in Helsinki for a conference designed to be exciting, thought-provoking and challenging.

COST 269: USER ASPECTS OF ICTs

The conference is organised by the COST 269 network 'User Aspects of ICTs', the successor to COST 248.  COST269 is an action in the domain 'Telecommunications, Information Science and Technology' of COST, an intergovernmental framework for European Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research. In COST 269 European scientists from telecommunication research departments, universities and operators together with independent consultants collaborate in cross-disciplinary groups to analyse social dimensions of people's relationships to information and communication technologies.  More information is available on our website at http://www.cost269.org

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CONFERENCE WEBSITE

http://www.cost269.org/conference.html

jeremy hunsinger jhuns@vt.edu on the ibook www.cddc.vt.edu www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments