[rohrpost] call: Virtual Technologies and Social Shaping

[Claus Pias]

IFIP 9.5 WG Virtuality & Society http://www.ifip95wg.org
are pleased to announce our next gathering as a part of IFIP's 50th
Anniversary conference, the

WORLD COMPUTER CONGRESS 2010
20-23 September 2010
Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre Brisbane, Australia
http://www.wcc2010.org/

CALL FOR PAPERS
===============
9th Human Choice and Computers (IFIP-TC9-HCC9) Track 2:

Virtual Technologies and Social Shaping
---------------------------------------

Following on the recent (April 2009) International Working Conference of
IFIP 9.5 Working Group on Virtuality and Society, "Images of  
Virtuality," at
Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece, this conference  
will be
a track of the IFIP Technical Committee 9th Human Choice and Computers
(HCC9) stream of the IFIP World Computer Congress, in Brisbane,  
Australia,
September 2010 http://www.wcc2010.org/ .

This track will focus on the feedback loops between virtual  
technologies and
the social groups who use them, how each shape the other and are in turn
shaped by them.
Social shaping, the sociology of technology, science studies and other
approaches of cultural studies to the phenomenon of the information  
society,
driven by such classics as those of Bijker and Law and Mackenzie and  
Wajcman
from the 1990s, are arguably now ready for a fresh look, in the  
context of
virtual environments and global social networking and gaming  
communities.
The intervening years have additionally seen an explosion of digital and
media arts interpretations, and explorations of the impact of virtual
technologies upon society, and the social use of such technologies upon
their design, and the entrepreneurial trajectories of their appearance  
in
the global market.

Virtual technologies, crucially, have moved very decisively from the
workplace - whether corporate or home office - and into the domestic  
sphere,
into our living rooms, playrooms, our kitchens, and our bedrooms. Here  
the
relationship between virtual technologies and society, and the mutual
shaping processes each undergo, are ripe for fresh study, insight, and
exploration.
The Virtuality and Society Working Group sub-stream of the Human  
Choice and
Computers stream of the World Computer Congress therefore invites  
research
and work-in-progress papers that address the choices faced by an  
information
society permeated by ubiquitous virtual technologies.
Relevant topics and themes include, but are not limited to:

. Discussing issues of responsive and iterative user-centred design,
usability, accessibility, and the 'permanent beta' of virtual systems .
Discussing the impact of virtual technologies within the domestic  
sphere and
the changes to such technologies developed out of use-cases .  
Exploring new
(e-, or v-) research methodologies and techniques on inquiring into  
social
action in the context of virtuality . Identifying challenging social,
ethical, and political issues of socialization in virtuality .  
Discussing
the role of electronic and digital arts and media in the shaping of  
virtual
technologies and their uses . Discussing the role of digital gaming and
massive multiplayer role-playing games in the shaping of virtual
technologies and their uses . Discussing virtual spaces and the role of
place in virtual technologies, and how the domestic as well as the  
work and
civic spaces of the information society are shaped by, and in turn shape
such technologies . Identifying opportunities and challenges for  
education,
governance, and entrepreneurship in virtual worlds . Discussing emerging
issues of e-policy and e-quality of life specifically implicated by  
virtual
technologies . Exploring social histories and philosophies that deepen  
our
understanding of term virtuality, and of the relationship between  
virtual
technologies and society and the mutual shaping processes between them

Additional information on the work of IFIP 9.5 WG is available at
http://www.ifip95wg.org

Program Committee
==================
Programme Chair: David Kreps, Salford Business School, Salford  
University,
UK.
Programme Co-chairs: Martin Warnke, Computer Science & Culture, Leuphana
University, Lueneburg, Deutschland, and Claus Pias, University of  
Vienna,
Austria Chrisanthi Avgerou, Management Information Systems and  
Innovation,
London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
Oliver Burmeister, University of Wollongong, Australia Simran Grewal,
University of Bath, UK Niki Panteli, School of Management, University of
Bath, UK.
Erika Pearson, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand Angeliki  
Poulymenakou,
Management Science & Technology, Athens University of Economics and
Business, Greece Steve Sawyer, College of Information Sciences and
Technology, Penn State University, USA Lin Yan, Greenwich University, UK

Instructions for paper submission
=================================
Papers must not substantially overlap with papers that have been  
published
or are simultaneously submitted to a journal or another conference with
proceedings. Papers must be written in English; they should be at most  
1O-12
pages in total, including bibliography and well-marked appendices.  
Papers
should be intelligible without appendices, if any.
Accepted papers will be presented at the conference and published in the
IFIP Series by Springer. Submitted and accepted papers must follow the
publisher's guidelines for the IFIP Series (www.springer.com/series/ 
6102),
Author templates, Manuscript preparation in Word). At least one author  
of
each accepted paper must register to the conference and present the  
paper.
All papers must be submitted in electronic form through the web via
http://www.wcc2010.org by the deadline indicated below, indicating for  
which
HCC9-track they apply. Papers submitted after this deadline will be
discarded without review.

Important dates
===============
Intention to submit: Immediately
Submission of papers: January 31, 2010
Notification to authors: April 20, 2010
Camera-ready copies: May 15, 2010

Intention to submit and submission must be sent also to the two HCC9 IPC
Chairs, and according to your track choice to the tracks chairs:
Jacques Berleur, Namur University, Belgium: jberleur at info.fundp.ac.be  
Magda
Hercheui, Westminster Business School and London School of Economics,  
United
Kingdom m.hercheui at googlemail.com Track 2: Virtual Technologies and  
Social
Shaping David Kreps, Salford Business School, Salford University, UK,
d.g.kreps at salford.ac.uk Martin Warnke, Computer Science & Culture,  
Leuphana
University, Lueneburg, Deutschland., warnke at leuphana.de, Claus Pias,
University of Vienna, Austria



--------------------------------------------
Dr David Kreps PhD MA MBCS
Senior Lecturer in Information Society

Secretary, IFIP WG 9.5 on Virtuality and Society
http://www.ifip95wg.org/

Research Centre for Information Systems, Organisations and Society,
Informatics Research Institute
Salford Business School
University of Salford
0161 295 5884
http://www.business.salford.ac.uk/staff/davidkreps