• COST 298 final report

Appendices:

• Significant highlights
• Online questionnaire report
• Report of workgroup 1 (Users as innovators)
• Report of workgroup 2 (Humans as e-Actors)
• Report of workgroup 3 (The multiple cultures of the European Information Society)

• Interacting with Broadband Society (Vol. 1, eds. Leopoldina Fortunati, Jane Vincent, Julian Gebhardt, Andraž Petrovčič, Olga Vershinskaya)
• Experiencing Broadband Society (Vol. 2, eds. Julian Gebhardt, Hajo Greif, Lilia Raycheva, Claire Lobet-Maris, Amparo Lasen)

ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal (6 July 2010)

Call for papers

The increasing centrality of the Internet has made it the focus of policy and regulatory initiatives around the world. Members of the World Internet Project are building on their collaborative network to identify and track key policy developments around the world in ways that can capture trends and better inform debate aimed at avoiding the over- or under-regulation of one of the most important information and communication technology developments of the digital age.

This workshop in Lisbon will be the first organized around the World Internet Policy Project (WIP2), and will be linked to the annual World Internet Project meetings that will follow immediately after the workshop. The organizers of the workshop invite abstracts of papers or presentations from among but also beyond the WIP membership, who wish to participate in this first workshop. Proposed papers or presentations would be welcomed on such topics as:

- freedom of expression

- privacy and data protection

- copyright and intellectual property

Organizers include:

Gustavo Cardoso, LINI – Lisbon Internet and Networks Institute

William Dutton, Oxford Internet Institute

Jeffrey Cole, Centre for the Digital Future (USC)

Submissions

Submissions of abstracts are to be done via email to vera.araujo@obercom.pt.

On one page (in English):

1. Provide the working title of the paper

2. Include your name, organizational affiliation with location, and e-mail address

3. Short biographical sketch of each author/presenter

On a second page (in English):

1. Working title of the paper

2. Abstract (maximum length is 600 words)

All submissions will be peer reviewed as the basis for acceptance. Reviewers will assess the proposals using the following criteria:

1. Relevance to conference theme and topics

2. Conceptual/analytic quality

3. Comparative and empirical research is highly desired

Deadlines

Abstract Submission: May 16^th 2010

Notification of Acceptance: May 31^th 2010

You are welcome to download the report from the meeting titled East meets West: Dialogue between Broadband Societies (edited by Bartolomeo Sapio and Patrick Law).

Consumption and Socio-Cultural Change Conference

1 Day Conference to be held at the Humanities Research Centre, University of York 6 July 2010.

Speakers include; Professor George Ritzer (Maryland), Professor Colin Campbell (York), Dr Mark Davis (Leeds), Professor Dick Houtman (Rotterdam), Professor Paul Heelas (Lancaster), Professor Tim Jackson (Surrey) and speakers from York such as Beverly Geesin, Michael Hardey and Simon Winlow

Poster (pdf) Registration form (Word) (pdf)

TH Wildau is organizing an international conference on “You will Shape the Digital Society with Your Knowledge-Make It Happen! Conference on Communications – a Common Playground for Social and Telecommunications Scientists” in May 26-28, 2010 and I would very much like to invite you to attend this event.

Rationale

Is Communication a Field for Social Scientists only or how strong are or should be the relation to Classic Sciences including Telecommunications & Computer Sciences? The rationale for this Conference is to highlights the interdependences between telecommunications and social sciences.

Scientists, professionals and senior students (Master & PhD), present their R &D results. Industrial key figures and lobby group leaders give their views on the evolution of telecommunications. Postgraduate students are very much invited to present their projects in so called poster sessions. This will be supplemented by panel sessions with discussions between the participants (senior speakers and post-graduates) and the audience.

The conference is chaired by

Bernd Eylert (TH Wildau, Germany) and

Julian Gebhardt (University of Potsdam / Hasso-Plattner-Institute, Germany)

TH Wildau is delighted to announce many senior speakers, who have already confirmed their

participation:

Heinrich Arnold (T-Labs Berlin, Germany)

Jean-Pierre Bienaime (UMTS Forum London, UK & Orange, France)

Vincent Chan (MIT Boston, USA)

Alan Hadden (GSA, UK)

Richard Harper (Surrey University Guildford & Microsoft Cambridge, UK)

Joachim Höflich (University of Erfurt, Germany)

Andreas Nungesser (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), Germany)

Dirk Poppen (E-plus Düsseldorf, Germany)

Adrian Scrace (ETSI Sophia Antipolis, France)

Klaus Vedder (Giesecke & Devrient Munich, Germany)

Jane Vincent (DWRC Surrey University, UK)

Mike Walker (Royal Holloway London, UK)

Bernd Wiemann (R&D Vodafone Group Munich, Germany)

The full conference program is available at our website http://www.tfh-wildau.de

REGISTRATION:

Please register not later than April 30, 2010 by using the registration form at <communications2010@tfh-wildau.de>

Post-graduate students should send their abstract by email to <socio-telecommunications@tfh-wildau.de>, by 11th April 2010, latest.

Conference Fees 350,00€

Academics 50,00€

Students 20,00€

Presenting Authors/Chairpersons/Students free

Sponsorship Package A 3000,00€

Includes:

Two complementary registrations

An exhibition space in the conference area (up to 4m2)

Your company’s name and logo in conference materials and proceedings

Sponsorship Package B 2000,00€

Includes:

Two complementary registrations

Your company’s name and logo in conference materials and proceedings

Sponsors:

The following organisations/companies have generously pledged financial support to the conference:

§ TH Wildau

§ T-Systems

§ Vodafone

Accommodation

HOTEL INFORMATION: TH Wildau has arranged special rates at the Seehotel Zeuthen (e.g. single room 72 € (double room 99 €) per night incl. breakfast, keyword “Eylert”) and has reserved a limited number of rooms for conference participants. Please book your accommodation directly with the Seehotel Zeuthen and address all booking-related inquiries directly to the hotel:

Seehotel Zeuthen, Fontaneallee 27, D-15738 Zeuthen, Germany, Phone +49 33762 89-0, www.seehotel-zeuthen.de

Publication

The publisher News&Media, Berlin, has agreed to produce a conference book and the already-invited authors are asked to submit their paper (printed version) by the 16th April 2010, to office@newsmedia.de at the latest.

Post-graduate students should send their abstract by email to <socio-telecommunications@tfhwildau.de>, by 1st April 2010, latest. Abstracts which are accepted for presentation will be published in the conference book; accepted papers should be delivered:

§ by email (.jpg format, 1 page), deadline 24th May 2010

§ as a poster (A1 format) taken directly to the conference

By end of the conference (afternoon May 28th) each participant will receive a full CD-documentation of the conference including the presentations, posters, panel sessions, discussions, awards ceremony etc.

For any further questions regarding the conference please contact Please contact Ms Linda Herascu (linda.herascu@tfh-wildau.de, Tel. +49 3375 508-383).

I would be delighted to welcome you at our conference.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Laszlo Ungvári

President TH Wildau Technical)

(University of Applied Sciences Wildau)

>> Conference flyer

CALL FOR PAPERS: THE NEW TELEVISION ECOSYSTEM

The whole media system, and the television in particular, is undergoing strong changes, especially related to the process of digitalisation and to the diffusion of the broadband society. Television has had, for nearly fifty years, a precise and relatively stable status: at least, we could define in a rather clear way what we meant by “television experience” or “watching TV” (Abruzzese, 1995; Scaglioni & Sfardini 2008). But especially in the last decade strong processes of innovation, diversification and hybridization have begun to reshape the current framework of producing and consuming television. The television is one of the devices which is subjected at the same time to a double process, both of divergence and convergence (Fortunati, 2008), while its screen has both expanded and shrunk dramatically from the flat screens to the tiny windows of mobile phones and iPods (Hilmes, 2009). The analogue television is planned to be overcome (the European Commission has set to the beginning of 2012 the date for the digital switch-off in all Member States) by the digital terrestrial television and by the new opportunities supplied by the Internet (Van den Broeck & Pierson, 2008). Furthermore, other opportunities are offered by mobile devices which have prompted a call for the switch of frequencies from TV to mobile telephony.

The actual television scenario is complex and fragmented, since many different kinds of TV cohabit: ‘traditional’ analogical TV, digital terrestrial TV, IPTV, time-shifting technologies such as Personal Video Recorder and Video on Demand that offer the possibility to record, sometimes without any advertisement, on supports like DVDs or Hard Drive, TV programs to be seen afterwards, thus mitigating the rigidity of the consumption time and of the spatial immobility in the consumption, Mobile TV and Net TV which is also known both as IPTV and Web TV, which is the TV on the Internet. These forms of TV are complemented by the satellite and cable TV.

Television experience is broadening and multiplying, both in quantitative terms (becoming more available) and in qualitative terms (through a process of personalization). Television series and programs are now being spread on physical digital supports such as DVDs and Blue-Ray discs, and on Internet portals like Apple’s iTunes, where it is possible to access and download a huge catalogue of television series and movies. Old distinctions among media contents do not work anymore, when facing the new media complex media environment: broadcast yourself is the slogan of the biggest video portal in the world, Youtube, where users can upload their own videos without any mediation (so-called UGC, User Generated Content). Television advertising is also reshaping by inspiring to the Internet banners and by becoming interactive and even more pervasive.

The present television context is undergoing a strong and multi-faceted evolution, a diversification and a transformation, where the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ coexist and entwine, rather than a revolution, as some authors prefigured in the past (Van Djik, 1999). Keeping in mind that the most important features of the television experience have been since long time outlined as the configuration of space, time, services, and audiences, produced by a negotiation between editorial networks and users (Thompson, 1995; Aroldi & Colombo, 2003), the development of the new television scenario is better framed in the light of processes such as the rise of e-actors and of their practices of use, strength of innovation and counter-power resistance (Fortunati et al., 2010). E-actors represent the convergence and the integration of different figures: user, consumer, buyer, customer, producer, everyday innovator, citizen, non-user, audience. A consequence of this convergence process is that audiences too have reconfigured themselves, their habits, expectations and aspirations, needs and desires, attitudes and behaviour, becoming networked, augmented and integrated audiences. So, the new forms of television should be seen as originated from the merging between technological innovation and new practices of agency and consumption performed by e-actors. Thus the new television scenario can be seen as a broad, fragmented and stratified analogue/digital ecosystem made up of traditional media and technological innovations and products as well as traditional and new practices and modalities of their use such as business TV, school and universities TV, street TV, city TV, neighbourhood TV, etc. In this new television ecosystem, media convergence (Jenkins, 2006) is only one of the processes, based on the technology of digitalization and located at the interstice among markets, institutions, cultural and social forms and ways of consumption/appropriation.

This call for papers focuses on the complexity of the television ecosystem, trying to build a comprehensive map and to offer a guide through this field providing research papers based on a wide array of television experiences. Topics of particular interest include (but are not limited to) projects, experiences, practices, innovative uses and theories about:

analogue television

digital television

cable TV

satellite TV

Mobile TV

Digital Terrestrial Television

time-shifting technologies

user-generated contents (on both mainstream platforms like Youtube but with a particular focus on bottom up experiences)

Web TV and micro TV (street TV, school TV, university TV, videoblog, videocommunity, etc.)

IpTV

business TV

interactive advertising

Convergent media consumption

Mobisodes

Webisodes

Deadlines:

Abstract : end of July, to be sent to prof. Leopoldina Fortunati (fortunati.deluca@tin.it)

Abstract acceptance: 31 September

Full papers acceptance: 31 December 2010-02-18

A selection of papers will be published in an collection with Peter Lang (Berlin) edited by Alberto Abruzzese, Nello Barile, Julian Gebhardt, Leopoldina Fortunati.

References

Abruzzese, A. (1995) Lo splendore della TV. Origini e destino del linguaggio audiovisivo. Genova: Costa & Nolan.

Aroldi, P. & Colombo, F. (2003) (eds.), Le Età Della TV. Indagine su Quattro Generazioni di

Spettatori Italiani, Milano: Vita & Pensiero.

Fortunati, L. (2008) Mobile Convergence. In K.Nyiri (ed.) Integration and Ubiquity. Towards a Philosophy of Telecommunications Convergence. Wien: Passagen Verlag, pp.221-228.

Fortunati, L., J. Vincent, J. Gebhardt, A. Petrovčič, and O. Vershinskaya (eds.) (2010) Interacting with Broadband Society. Berlin: Peter Lang.

Hilmes, M. (2009). Television sound: Why the silence?. Music, Sound, and the Moving Image

2(2), 153-161.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.

Scaglioni, M., Sfardini, A. (2008) MultiTV. L'esperienza televisiva nell'età della convergenza

Thompson, J. B. (1995) The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Van den Broeck, W. & Pierson, J. (eds.) (2008). Digital television in Europe. Brussels: VUBpress.

Van Dijk, J. (1999) The Network Society: Social Aspects of New Media. London: Sage.

Helsinki, Finland, 19–20 August 2010

Call for Papers

How do users contribute to innovations, and how are they curbed from

doing so? The road from initial invention, be that by a user, by a

community, or by a manufacturer, to a more or less stabilised and

widespread innovation tends to take years, even decades. Technology and

the practices of the people who adopt it and of those who develop it

tend to change during this time. The role of users in this intertwined

change of technology, practices, and organisations is at the focus of a

two‑day workshop being held at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.

The study of users in innovation has matured greatly over the last

decade or so. Research on innovations by users has established that

users innovate and modify a significant proportion of both industrial

and consumer goods. Studies at homes and workplaces have revealed the

importance of domestication and adjustment of new technology.

User-centred and participatory approaches to design have demonstrated

the various benefits to more close-knit engagement between users and

developers. Open source development, peer content creation, and various

management volumes for harnessing customers in value creation have

spurred great enthusiasm.

Regrettably, however, most studies within these approaches still resort

to somewhat truncated research designs: they study either design or use

and/or focus either on details or on more broad-level descriptions of

technology and practice change. This workshop aims to bring together

empirical, theoretical, and methodological developments in the study of

the interlacing of development and use activities. This includes but is

not limited to longitudinal ‘biographic’ studies of the pathways of new

technology and of changes in user practices, design approaches that

extend to both development and use, and ways to map the varying

constellations of design and use. The workshop welcomes research on a

variety of areas and topics within the user-developer nexus as well as a

variety of domains, to gain a more nuanced picture.

Topics we hope to see addressed include but are not limited to:

- Roles users play in innovation, ranging from innovation by users to

everyday adaptation of technology to more long-term processes such as

infrastructuring

- Different ‘constellations’ or ‘ecologies’ of actors in and between

design and use of new technology

- The roles played by user-centred design, usability studies, marketing

research, and other intermediary activities in longer-term innovation

processes and practice change

- User representations in technology design

- Social imaginations of new technologies and practices, particularly in

how they relate to development projects

- Path dependency, path creation, and trajectories of technology design

and use

- Learning and interaction between developers and users

- Power and dominance structures between design and use

- Exclusions, silences, and design at the margins

- Community and ‘lay’ participatory design, open source activities, and

other approaches wherein users are developing technology throughout its

life cycle

Keynote speakers and discussants: Prof. Geoffrey Bowker, Dr Mark

Hartswood, Dr Neil Pollock, Prof. Susan Leigh Star, Dr James Stewart,

Prof. Robin Williams

Deadline for 500-word abstracts: 15.3.2010 (notification of acceptance

by 15.4.2010)

Registration fee: €50

For further information and with any questions, please contact

sampsa.hyysalo@helsinki.fi

--

Dr. Risto Sarvas

research scientist / Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT

visiting fellow / University of Surrey

email: risto.sarvas@hiit.fi

phone: +358 (0) 50 384 1553

fax: +358 (9) 694 9768

web: http://www.hiit.fi/risto.sarvas/

ITALY 27-29 OCTOBER 2010

coordinated by: Centre for Community Networking Research Monash University, Information School, University of Washington Public Sphere Project Evergreen State College

cirn.wikispaces.com/prato2010 email: prato2010 AT fastmail.fm

Dear colleagues

We are seeking submissions from academics, practitioners and PhD students for a conference at the Monash University Centre, Prato Italy (near Florence). TheCentre for Community Networking Research, Monash, in conjunction with theCommunity Informatics Research Network, has held many highly successful events since 2003 in Prato, as well as associated workshops over the years, in the UK, France, and Portugal.

The conference has an increasing representation of delegates from Francophone and Spanish-speaking countries, and we welcome your attendance. While the official conference language is English, if there are sufficient papers for either language, specific sessions will be arranged. Please distribute this call widely.

cONFERENCE tHEME

Community Informatics, like many other areas of social intervention and development, deals with the real world, which in spite of all the effort put into planning and thinking about how things are meant to happen, things never quite work out as they planned. Dealing with the unexpected is well known, recognised, and even expected in business enterprises, but often, in community settings, the unexpected is seen as risky, and sometimes, even evidence of failure.

Community Informatics is the theory and practice of empowering communities with information and communication technologies. There is a widespread expectation that Community Informatics will cultivate civic intelligence, enhance democracy, develop social capital, build communities, spur economies and empower individuals and groups, and result in many different forms of positive social change. Community Informatics, in bringing together communities and technologies, works across at least three dimensions, though there may be others which are relevant:

- The Context and Values held by different stakeholders in Community Informatics

- The Processes and Methodologies which are brought to bear in Community Informatics enterprises

- The Systems (both technical and social) which influence Community Informatics and those which Community Informatics influences

The unexpected or unanticipated is sometimes the most valuable thing to come out of work with a community, and being able use that innovation is of great importance to communities, designers, researchers, and other concerned parties.What are remarkable examples of unexpected or unanticipated outcomes?

* Why is a high value placed upon the achievement of safe and technocratic, quantitative goals, often at the expense of unexpected positive outcomes?

* Is it a problem on the part of planners or the part of community, and why is this so?

* What are the consequences of this emphasis on predictability?

* What are the effects on creativity and the capacity to deal with the unexpected?

* Are we expecting too much (or too little) of ICTs in communities, and conversely, are we expecting too much (or too little) of communities in their interaction with ICTs?

* When the expected leads to major limitations or a project failure, how to we deal with this?

* How could or should communities engage within themselves and with others to realistically prepare for 21st century challenges?

* What technological and social processes are needed to cultivate civic intelligence in local communities?

* What are the connections and differences between unanticipated technical events and unanticipated community or social effects and events? Are they easy to separate?

* How can theorists, designers and communities become more response to dealing with unanticipated outcomes and developments in a project or program?

* What bodies of theory and practice can be bring to bear to enlighten our interactions?

We seek papers and presentations from practitioners, policy-makers, PhD students, academics, artists, and journalists that fit within these three broad streams. If you believe that you have a paper or presentation that is outside the main themes or streams, but it still be of interest to the community informatics community, please submit it for consideration.

THEME 1: PLANNING CI: MAKING ROOM FOR THE UNEXPECTED

* What bodies of theory and practice help us to plan better, or are there other ways to approach the issue?

* Where does planning begin and end? What limitations does planning sometimes have and how are they best addressed?

* What different types of planning techniques and methods are relevant to community informatics? Do we need to design our own?

* How do we make room for unanticipated positive and negative occurrences and outcomes in the planning process?

* Can one plan for the unexpected and unanticipated?

THEME 2: IMPLEMENTING CI: EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED

* How do we incorporate the positively unanticipated and unexpected into the implementation cycle?

* What are best ways to do it, and convince our funders that things are not going haywire?

* When the unanticipated results are negative, how do we cope?

THEME 3: EVALUATING CI: LEARNING FROM THE UNEXPECTED

* How can we evaluate the unexpected in ways that promote a positive and useful perception of the challenges of working in real community settings?

* What are the difficulties in learning about the unexpected?

* What particular evaluation theories and methodologies are of particular relevance to community informatics.

DATES AND PROCESSES

In order to enhance the quality of papers in all streams, Program Chairs will take an active role in guiding papers through the review process and deadlines

will be adhered to.

The following kinds of papers are sought:

1. Full papers for blind peer review (up to 10 pages, including references).

2. Works in progress and more speculative pieces (reviewed and selected, but not peer reviewed, also up to 10 pages)

3. Non refereed papers, including practitioner reports (up to 10 pages, including references).

4. PhD papers which provide an outline of current or proposed PhD research (between 2-3000 words, including references)

5. Proposals for workshops or panel discussions

6. Proposals for posters

There will be a conference proceedings with an ISBN and selected papers will also be published in a special issue of the Journal of Community Informatics.

Best prizes in refereed and PhD categories will be awarded.

KEY DATES

* By 1 April 2010: Expressions of interest up to 500 words via conference website

* By 1 June 2010: Full papers all streams ( Papers in the peer review section reviewed by 15 August).

* By 15 September 2010: Final version of papers, based on peer review and program committee decisions due

* Submitted proposals for workshops will also be contacted by members of the program committee

* Registrations from 1 July

To register your expression of interest for any of the conference streams, please go to cirn.wikispaces.com/prato2010 and follow the instructions.

Detailed information is also provided on the site about registration, travel, accommodation, tourism etc.

CONFERENCE CHAIRS

Ricardo Gomez, University of Washington;Graeme Johanson, Monash University;Larry Stillman, Monash University

PROGRAM CHAIRS

Ricardo Gomez, University of Washington;Douglas Schuler, The Public Sphere Project, The Evergreen State College;Larry Stillman, Monash University

PROGRAM COMMITTEE (PARTIAL)

Aldo de Moor, Community Sense, Netherlands;Peter Day, University of Brighton,

UK;Fiorella de Cindio, University of Milan, Italy;Serge Agostinelli, LSIS

Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Saint-Jérôme, France;Mike Arnold,

University of Melbourne, Australia;Ann Bishop, Univ. of Illinois, USA;Gunilla

Bradley, Royal Institute of Tech., Sweden;Wallace Chigona, Univ. of Cape Town,

South Africa;Barbara Craig, Victoria Univ. of Wellington, NZ;Tom Denison,

Monash University, Australia;Vesna Dolnicar, University of Lubljana;Alison

Elliot, Charles Darwin University, Australia;Manuela Farinosi, University of

Udine, Italy; Phil Fawcet Microsoft Research/University of Washington,

USA;Leopoldina Fortunati, University of Udine, Italy;Marlien Herselman, Meraka

Institute, CSIR, South Africa;Sarai Lastra, Turabo Univ., Puerto Rico; Mike

Martin, University of Newcastle, UK;William McIver, Jr, National Research

Council Canada;Marie Ouvrard, Laboratoire des Sciences d'Information et des

Systèmes, Marseilles, France;Justin Smith, Washington State University,

USA;Eduardo Villanueva Mansilla,Pontificia Universidad Católica del

Perú;Steve Thompson, University of Teesside, UK;Will Tibben, University of

Wollongong, Australia; Janet Toland, Victoria University of Wellington,

NZ;Emiliano Trere, Univ. of Udine, Italy;Gilson Schwartz, Univ. São Paulo,

Brazil;Jacques Steyn, Monash Univ., South Africa;Andy Williamson, Hansard

Society, UK Martin Wolske, University of Illinois, USA

Sponsors (partial): Centre for Community Networking Research Monash

University; Information School University of Washington; The Public Sphere

Project The Evergreen State College; Turabo University, Puerto Rico;

University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science

FOR THE CONFERENCE

Ricardo Gomez, University of Washington Douglas Schuler, The Public Sphere Project, The Evergreen State College Larry Stillman, Monash University

-- Prato CIRN Community Informatics Conference 2010

https://www.conftool.net/prato2010