LAST CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Persistent Conversation Minitrack Digital Media and Content Track at HICSS 41 January 7-10, 2008 Hilton Waikoloa Village, the Big Island, Hawai'i See http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC.html for an online version and further information. IMPORTANT DATES - Mon, April 16, 2007: Abstract submission* - Tue, May 1, 2007: Feedback on abstracts - Fri, June 15, 2007: Paper submission [instructions on the HICSS site] - Wed, August 15, 2007: Accept/Conditional Accept/Reject notice --------------- *If you miss the abstract deadline but are interested in participating, please contact the organizers. ABOUT THE MINITRACK This interdisciplinary minitrack and workshop brings designers and researchers together to explore persistent conversation, the transposition of ordinarily ephemeral conversation into the potentially persistent digital medium. Persistent conversations occur via instant messaging, text and voice chat, email, blogs, web boards, MOOs, graphical and 3D virtual environments, gaming systems, video sharing sites, document annotation systems, mobile phone texting, etc. Such communication is persistent in that it leaves a digital trace, and the trace in turn affords new uses. It permits conversations to be saved, visualized, browsed, searched, replayed, and restructured. Persistence also means that conversations need not be synchronous: they can be asynchronous (stretching out over hours or days) or supersynchronous (with multiple parties 'talking' at the same time). Finally, the creation of persistent and potentially permanent records from what was once an ephemeral process raises a variety of social and ethical issues. ABOUT PAPER TOPICS We are seeking papers that address one or both of the following two general areas: * Understanding Practice. The burgeoning popularity of the internet (and intranets) provides an opportunity to study and characterize new forms of conversational practice. Questions of interest range from how various features of conversations (e.g., turn-taking, topic organization, expression of paralinguistic information) have adapted in response to the digital medium, to new roles played by persistent conversation in domains such as education, business, and entertainment. * Design. Digital systems do not currently support conversation well: it is difficult to converse with grace, clarity, depth and coherence over networks. But this need not remain the case. Toward this end, we welcome analyses of existing systems as well as designs for new systems which better support conversation. Also of interest are inquiries into how participants design their own conversations within the digital medium -- that is, how they make use of system features to create, structure, and regulate their discourse. Examples of appropriate topics include, but are not limited to: - Turn-taking, threading and other structural features of CMC - The dynamics of large scale conversation systems (e.g. blog networks) - Methods for summarizing or visualizing conversation archives - Studies of virtual communities or other sites of digital conversation - The roles of mediated conversation in knowledge management - Studies of the use of instant messaging in large organizations - Novel designs for computer-mediated conversation systems - Analyses of or designs for distance learning systems NEXT STEPS Submit a 250 to 500 word abstract of your proposed paper via email to the chairs: Tom Erickson (snowfall at acm dot org), Susan Herring (herring at indiana dot edu) by the deadline noted above. We will send you feedback on the suitability of your abstract by the deadline noted above. FOR MORE INFORMATION - About the minitrack, see http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC.html or contact: Thomas Erickson (snowfall at acm.org) and Susan Herring (herring at indiana.edu) - About previous years' papers (including pdf's) and participants, see: http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC_History.html - About the HICSS conference, see: http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/ ------------------------------ Tom Erickson and Susan Herring Chairs, Persistent Conversation minitrack and workshop, HICSS 41