Dear colleagues, Enclosed please find a call for papers on real-time communication (instant messaging, synchronous communication etc.) and distributed work. The International Journal of e-Collaboration is an academic, scholarly peer-reviewed journal published by the International Resource Management Association (IRMA). Please consider submitting your work to our special issue by March 15, 2008. Should you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me. With best regards Kai Riemer ********************************** CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue on "Real-time Collaboration (RTC) and Distributed Work" International Journal of e-Collaboration (IJEC) ISSN: 1548-3681 (online) 1548-3673 (print) http://www.idea-group.com/journals/details.asp?id=4297 Submission deadline: March 15, 2008 Scheduled Publication date: Beginning of 2009 Guest editors: Kai Riemer, The University of Muenster (Germany) Volker Wulf, The University of Siegen (Germany) IJeC editor: Ned Kock, Texas A&M International University The full call for papers can be downloaded here: http://www.e-collaboration.net/cfp-rtc TOPIC OUTLINE Today's work practices are undergoing significant changes due to trends of virtualization and the emergence of new communication technologies. Distributed settings are increasingly common in organizations. While virtualization offers benefits (e.g. remote and flexible interaction), the resulting work environments present a number of challenges such as a lack of awareness of co-workers' activities and locations. At the same time, with the number of available communication channels and devices growing, the communicative complexity increases likewise. People are faced with an increase in communication volume, more work interruptions, and at the same time with a poor availability of co-workers. The latter typically impedes information access and the free flow of knowledge. Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) technologies are supposed to present an answer to these challenges. The idea of RTC technologies is to lessen the aforementioned problems through enabling instant (real-time) collaboration between people using various media and devices and by enabling the creation of awareness. RTC technologies comprise Voice-over-IP telephony, video conferencing and Instant Messaging with its text chat feature and presence information. Integrated RTC systems are the result of media convergence, device integration, and unified communications. By providing active presence management and rule-based message filtering, RTC systems try to re-empower users to be in control of their communication. Moreover, RTC systems show significant potential for integration with other software systems in order to enable contextual real-time collaboration in work processes (e.g. integration with other groupware systems, office software, and enterprise systems). We are pleased to invite scholars from any methodological background to contribute papers that advance our knowledge of the design, diffusion, appropriation, usage and impact of RTC systems, particularly in the context of distributed work. We welcome theoretical, conceptual, design-oriented and especially empirical contributions using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Research efforts might focus on different organization levels such as individuals, teams, corporations, networks, and informal communities and on different RTC technologies such as Instant Messaging tools, Voice-over-IP telephony, Video conferencing, Unified communications, Mobile RTC systems, or integrated RTC systems suites. Typical RTC systems are: - Small RTC tools: Skype, AIM, ICQ etc.; i.e. Instant Messaging and Voice-Call tools - Integrated RTC systems: IBM Sametime, Siemens Hipath Openscape, Oracle Collaboration Suite etc. - Related technologies: Video and web conferencing systems TOPICS Papers in this special issue might be concerned with any or all of the above mentioned RTC technologies (Instant Messaging, VoIP, Unified Communication systems, etc.) and might address, but are not limited to one or more of the following areas: Usage, impact and effects of RTC technologies - Presence and awareness in distributed work - RTC and typical coordination problems in distributed work - The time dimension in real-time collaboration - Diffusion and adoption of RTC technologies in the market place - Emerging new work practices based on the appropriation of RTC - Inter-organizational support with RTC technologies - Effects of RTC on social networks in and across organizations - Effects of RTC on organizational culture - Effects of RTC in bridging barriers created by virtualization - Group level effects of RTC (e.g. reachability, visibility, identity building etc.) - Individual level effects of RTC (e.g. control, interruptions and disturbance) - Changing communication behaviors through RTC usage - Shifts in media usage through introduction of RTC technologies - Privacy and control issues of increased awareness of peoples' actions RTC design and systems development - User interfaces design challenges in RTC systems - Development, application, and evaluation of RTC prototypes - Design of presence signaling mechanisms - Challenges of integrating different media in RTC infrastructures - Case studies reporting on the integration of RTC with business processes - Case studies reporting on the integration of RTC with other software systems - Experimental research to explore user perceptions of RTC features PLEASE NOTE: For specific topics and the submission guidelines please download the full CfP at http://www.e-collaboration.net/cfp-rtc ************************************ Dr. Kai Riemer Research group on Collaborative systems and cooperation management (CSCM)   University of Münster European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS) Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik (Information Systems)   Leonardo-Campus 3 D-48149 Münster ph: +49-251-8338123 fx: +49-251-8328032 eMail: kai.riemer@ercis.de