Critical Point Of View : WikiWars Call for Participation (Conference and Reader)

CPOV - Critical Point Of View : WikiWars
Call for Participation: Conference and Reader

See also: http://cis-india.org/research/conferences/conference-blogs/Wikiwars

Context: The Wikipedia has emerged as the de facto global reference of dynamic knowledge. Different stakeholders – Wikipedians, users, academics, researchers, gurus of Web 2.0, publishing houses and governments have entered into fierce debates and discussions about what the rise and growth of Wikipedia (and Wikipedia cultures) mean to the information societies we live in. The Wikipedia itself has been at the centre of much controversy pivoted around questions of accuracy, anonymity, vandalism, expertise and authority.

The Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore, India) and the Institute of Network Cultures (Amsterdam, Netherlands) seek to bring together ideas, experiences and scholarship about Wikipedia in a consolidated reader that charts out detailed user stories as well as empirical and analytical work to produce a Critical Wikipedia Reader. Both the institutes are looking to organise two separate conferences aimed at building a Wikipedia Knowledge Network and charting scholarship and stories about The Wikipedia from around the world.

WikiWars Conference: The first Conference to be held in Bangalore early January 2010, called Wikiwars, invites participation from users, scholars, academics, practitioners, artists and other cultural workers, to share their experiences, ideas, experiments, innovations, applications and stories about Wikipedia. WikiWars embody the spirit that guides an open encyclopaedia like the Wikipedia, referring to the passionate fights that users enter into over topics that have more than one objective points of view. Wikiwars also refers to the various camps that have taken often contradictory positions on the various issues of credibility, authority, verifiability and truth-telling, on the Wikipedia. This conference calls for diverse and varied knowledges to come together in a critical dialogic space that informs and augments our understanding of the Wikipedia.

Conference Themes: The possible themes and areas for participation (projects, experiences, experiments, stories or documentation) can include but are not limited to:

· Wiki Theory: Endorse, question or delineate the theoretical approaches and view points on the Wikipedia

· Wikipedia and Critique of Western Knowledge Production: The predominance of textual or linguistic cultures, post-western knowledge production systems, indigenous knowledge systems

· Wiki Art: Art that uses Wikipedia model, structures or data to explore and expand the practice of Wikipedia project; accounts that document Wikipedia based art practices or debates

· Designing Debate: Suggestions, innovations and ideas that focus on the design and form of the Wikipedia, to explore the claims of neutrality, objectivity, and authenticity on the Wikipedia

· Critique of Free and Open: Areas like Wikipedia governance, economic practices of and around Wikipedia, and the nature of freedom in usage, consumption and participation on the Wikipedia

· Global Politics of Exclusion: Exploring questions of non-western material, language, connectedness, oral histories, women, non-geeks, alternative material that cannot be documented on Wikipedia etc.

· The Place of Resistance: Space of resistance and dissent in the Wikipedia, structures that allow for alternative voices, experiences and ideas

· Wikipedia and Education: Wikipedia usage in classrooms as teaching tools, Wikipedia and its effect on pedagogy, the role of Wikipedia in the knowledge production industry, and mobilisation of academic communities around the Wikipedia

Who Should Apply: The Conference in Bangalore aims to bring together an interesting mix of diverse voices from different cultures, geo-political spaces, and context-based practices from around the world, to start consolidating the approaches, experiences, and impact of the Wikipedia. Students, Wikipedia users who belong to different local chapters or have editorial/contribution experiences on the Wikipedia, Academics and publishers who are exploring the changes that the Wikipedia has resulted in, both in classroom pedagogy and in knowledge production systems, researchers and theoreticians, practitioners and proponents, artists and social activists who are interested in Wikipedia cultures and their socio-political potentials, should be attending this conference.

How To Apply: To apply for the conference, please send the following information by email to infowiki@cis-india.org by the 31st of August, 2009. 1. A note of interest (450 - 700 words) detailing your ideas and possible contribution 2. Your updated resume 3. (Optional) A sample of your work (term papers, published articles, peer-reviewed papers, books, art-projects, social intervention projects etc.)

Conference time-line:

Last Date for submitting Note of Interest and Funding options – 31st August, 2009

Announcement of short-listed proposals – 21st September, 2009

Full-drafts of participant projects/contributions – 15th December, 2009

Announcement of Conference Schedule and Logistics – 30th December 2009

Conference Dates – 12th, 13th January 2010

(The Amsterdam event is planned for March 26th, 27th)

Funding Options: There are a few funding options that are available to the participants (national and international) for this conference. The selected participants will be provided with the basic travel and accommodation costs for the duration of the conference from their home-countries/cities to travel to Bangalore for the conference. If you are applying for funding, please indicate clearly in your “Note of Interest” any of these three options: 1. Full Funding necessary for participation. 2. Might be able to participate with limited or no funding. 3. Funding not required. The funding choices will be made by the organisers and the research team depending upon the depth of idea, the suitability to the conference and the uniqueness of the project.

Conference Organisers: Sunil Abraham (Sunil@cis-india.org) and Nishant Shah (Nishant@cis-india.org ), Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. If there are any queries please write to us.

Research and Editorial Team: Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer (Amsterdam), Nathaniel Tkacz (Melbourne), Johanna Niesyto (Siegen), Sunil Abraham and Nishant Shah (Bangalore).