Final call: 4th Annual Social Informatics Research Symposium (SIG SI)

DEADLINE extended to September 2!

Second Call for Papers and Participation:

4th Annual Social Informatics Research Symposium (SIG SI)
People, information and technology: The social analysis of computing

Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and
Technology
Saturday, October 25, 2008, 8:30-12:30 PM
Hyatt Regency Columbus, Ohio

The purpose of this ASIST preconference research symposium is to
disseminate current research and research in progress that
investigates the social aspects of information and communications
technologies (ICT) across all areas of ASIST. The symposium includes
members of many SIGs and defines "social" broadly to include critical
and historical approaches and well as contemporary social analysis. It
defines "technology" broadly to include traditional technologies
(i.e., paper) as well as state of the art computer systems. This
year's theme is "People, information and technology: The social
analysis of computing”

In keeping with the theme of the conference, the symposium is
soliciting work that focuses on the relationships of mutual shaping
between people and information as mediated by technology. According to
Horton, Davenport, and Wood-Harper (2005; 52) “the impetus for
researchers to consider both social and technical aspects as mutually
constitutive as a means of understanding technology introduction and
use has a growing audience.”

This symposium will highlight research focusing on the social
realities of ICT based information systems (broadly defined) in IS in
order to better understand the following:

~ How are the design, implementation, use, disuse, and ongoing
reconfiguration of information and ICTs influenced by social groups,
organizations, politics, and culture?
~ How do information and ICTs shape those creating, implementing and
using them?
~ What are the roles of information and ICT in ongoing social change
at various levels of social analysis such as groups, organizational
units, political entities or cultural systems?
~ What are the complex reciprocal relationships among information,
ICT, people, social groups and the environments that surround and
pervade them?
~ What are the variations in meanings or interpretations of
information and ICT across social groups and organizations?
~ What are the moral or ethnical consequences of ICT system
development and use?

We are particularly interested in work that assumes a critical stance
towards the notion of mutual shaping – what is involved in people
transforming information and information transforming people? A
critical analysis is useful because it “bring into question
established social assumptions and values regarding information and
communication technologies (ICTs) and established understandings of
‘information,’ particularly as they play themselves out and are
institutionalized in social and professional discourses and
professional training.” (Day, 2007; 575).

We encourage all scholars, both beginning and established, interested
in social aspects of ICT (broadly defined) to share their research and
research in progress by submitting an extended abstract of their work
and attending the symposium.

This year, the SIG SI is partnering with SIG USE to offer a
comprehensive full day program. The theme of this symposium fits well
with the main themes of the SIG USE symposium meaning that there would
be a full day of exploration of the question of the transformative
relationships between people, information, and ICTs from two different
but clearly related perspectives. The SIG SI symposium will take place
on Saturday morning and the SIG USE symposium will be in the
afternoon. Collectively, the two sessions can offer a comprehensive
full day program, although each will work well as a stand-alone event.
The two SIGs will co-sponsor a networking lunch that will take place
in between the two events [Cost: Pay-on-your-own. Further details to
be announced later]. There will be a discount for people who register
for both symposia.

Call for papers and posters:

Submit a short paper (2000 words) or poster (500 words) by September
2, 2008

Submissions may include empirical, critical and theoretical work, as
well as richly described practice cases and demonstrations.

Acceptance announcements made by September 9, in time for conference
early registration (ends Sept 12th).

Tentative Schedule

Paper presentations: 8:30-10:45 pm
Break: 10:45-11:15 (with poster viewing)
Closing Keynote Discussion: 11:15-12:30 pm
Lunch with SIG-USE: 12:30-1:30 PM

Fees

Members $60 - $70 after Sept. 12
Non-members $70 - $80, after Sept. 12

If you register for the SI Symposium and the SIG-USE Symposium you
will receive a $10 discount:

Members $140 - $150 after Sept. 12
Non-members $150 - $160, after Sept. 14

Organizers:

Howard Rosenbaum, School of Library and Information Science -Indiana
University
hrosenba@indiana.edu
Elisabeth Davenport, School of Computing, Napier University
e.davenport@napier.ac.uk
Kalpana Shankar, School of Informatics -Indiana University
shankark@indiana.edu

Day, R. (2007). Kling and the “critical”: Social informatics and
critical informatics. Journal of the American Society for Information
Science and Technology. 58(4): 575–582.

Horton, K., Davenport, E. and Wood-Harper, T. (2005). Exploring
sociotechnical interaction with Rob Kling: five “big” ideas.
Information Technology & People 18(1): 50-67