fyi. Please note that for some of us it is just before the Amer Soc Assoc conf in SFO. Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 11:41:43 -0500 From: "Bill McIver, University at Albany" <mciver@ALBANY.EDU> To: EURICOM-L@listserv.albany.edu Subject: [EURICOM-L] Call for Papers: International Colloquium -- Communication and Democracy: Technology and Citizen Engagement * * * * *Call for Papers* International Colloquium *Communication and Democracy: Technology and Citizen Engagement* Wednesday, August 4 - Friday, August 6, 2004 Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada Sponsors University of New Brunswick, Department of Sociology and Office of Research Services National Research Council Canada Institute of Information Technology, Atlantic Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia Since the early 1990s, governments, industry and commercial organizations, public agencies, non-governmental organizations, communities and individual citizens have embraced the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT), expending extensive resources on their deployment and adoption. Along this digital journey, on one end of a continuum, claims have been made about the revolutionary and emancipatory potential of ICT. Promoters exhort the urgency of its adoption to realize citizen empowerment, institutional transformation and transparency, direct democracy, and the erasure of time and space to create an electronic global village. At the other end of this continuum of debate, critics argue that the potential benefits of ICT are being outweighed by a growing digital impotence for citizens, who are increasingly bound by new forms of regulation, institutional electronic rigidities, market regulation, the extension of commercial practices deeper into social life, and technical design myopic of human needs. The broad themes of citizen engagement, democratic inclusion, and socio-economic betterment for citizens, communities and nations have emerged as key research concerns that cut across issues such as the digital divide, convergence, e-commerce and the dot com bomb, e-learning, e-health, gaming, virtual communities, community informatics, connectivity, broadband, and government online. Now, ten years into the popular development of the Internet, it is opportune to critically reflect on where we have been, where we are supposed to be, what we have learned, or what we should have learned, where we should be going, and what questions we should be asking as we continue further on this journey. The purpose of this colloquium is to reflect on the core issues of communications, democracy and citizen engagement and to push the margins of thinking and debate around entry points such as methodologies, social practices, theoretical frameworks, technical design, institutional relations and citizen needs. It will bring together up-and-coming researchers and established experts to exchange ideas about current research and theories - and rethink the ways forward. Presentations can be based on local, national or international research. To facilitate open discussion and full involvement all sessions will be plenary. Central themes for panels (papers) include, but are not restricted to: *Technology R&D and Citizen Needs* This panel focuses on user needs and applications research and development. Featuring social scientists and computer science researchers, half the presenters discuss communication from a user needs perspective, and other presenters discuss the process behind the design of community informatics and other applications. One goal of the panel is to encourage debate among social and computer scientists about citizen needs and technology research and development. Needs assessment, the socio-economic aspects of the communication relationship, and technology designed to meet user needs are possible theme areas. *Research Methodologies* Various qualitative and quantitative methods offer a number of possibilities for research on citizen needs, democratic communications, community communications, human/technology interface, and community informatics, among others. This panel discusses such questions as: what are the 'right' research questions that should be asked, and why? What are different methodologies that should be employed? Empirical examples, theoretical and methodological examples or possibilities could be explored. *Citizen Engagement and E-Democracy* Panelists will discuss findings of research on ICT used to facilitate citizen engagement in communities and between citizens, in relation to community organizations, government agencies and the state. What do "engagement" and "e-Democracy" mean to citizens, governments and communities, and what should they mean? What are the best means, channels or practices to attain them? * * *Organizers* * * Andrew Reddick, Ph.D. Group Leader, e-Government/e-Citizen Group, National Research Council Canada, Institute for Information Technology, Fredericton, NB, Canada andrew.reddick@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca <mailto:andrew.reddick@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca> Vanda Rideout, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada vrideout@unb.ca <mailto:vrideout@unb.ca> Mary C. Milliken, MA, Ph.D. candidate, UNB, Conference Organizer, NRC-CNRC IIT, mary.milliken@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca <mailto:mary.milliken@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca> *Submission of Abstract* Faculty, researchers and graduate students are encouraged to submit 250 word abstracts in .doc or .pdf format, for peer review, to the attention of Mary C. Milliken, mary.milliken@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca <mailto:mary.milliken@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca> by 1 April 2004. Authors will be notified of acceptance by 30 April. The deadline for full papers is 12 July 2004. Discussants will provide comments on final papers. For further information about this event, please refer to our web site at http://www.unb.ca/technocitizen/ or contact Mary at the above e-mail address.