PROGRAMME AT A GLANCE

PROGRAMME

A number of communities have an interest in and perspectives on the relationship between people and ICTs. These include industry, academia, designers, policy makers and other institutions. The goal of this conference is to encourage and facilitate a dialogue between these communities in order to promote transdisciplinary insights that can enhance the process by which these technologies are shaped.

The conference aims:
1. To instigate and support dialogues:
- Between social scientists, designers, engineers, policy-makers and technology and service providers.
- Between the different disciplinary approaches analysing the social and cultural dimensions of ICTs (covering telecommunications, computing and mass media).
2. To explore the state of the art of our knowledge and the results of current research, at the same time indicating the implications of this for those who are planning and shaping technologies and services.
3. To confront the reality of today with the possibilities of the future, and to debate the meaning of reported and anticipated developments for the everyday life in an increasingly globalised society.

The last decades have seen the spread of many myths about what technology will achieve – it is now time to move on to a more realistic and democratic appraisal. To this end we propose the following topic areas for the conference:

1. The extended human

In a variety of ways ICTs can extend human capabilities, awareness and spheres of action. This strand of the conference could cover such areas as connecting with social networks and distributed social practices related to ICTs; the relationship between technology and the body of the future; the invisibility, embeddedness and ubiquity of computers; the socio-cultural significance of the new senses and capabilities that humans acquire through technology.

Key words: Augment, extend, body, mind, tools, reality, relationships, sphere of life, consciousness, physical/mental/digital dimensions, artefacts, resistance and hostility, security vs. risk, art, fashion, avatar, cyborg, e-Me, professional practices, extended space/time.

2. Users as innovators

Users of ICTs have often used technologies in very creative, sometimes unanticipated, ways. This strand covers the ways in which ICTs either enable or constrain users’ ability to develop innovatory social practices; what factors lead to creativity in the use of ICTs.

Key words: User benefits, domestication/appropriation/innovation, applications, empowering, from people to innovation, drop-outs, non-users, competences, capabilities, consumer organisations, conflicts and consensus, creativity, errors, failed innovations, professional practices, commercial potential.

3. Dealing with diversity

User-centred design approaches are becoming the imperative for businesses that want to address the customer’s personal preferences, driven by competition and the growing flexibility of technology. But do we have the means to understand the true extent of this massive diversity of individual interests, cultural identities, personal priorities, health concerns, social networks, and so on? How should it be dealt with in design and development? This strand could cover how diversity of the 'users' is manifested, what issues it provokes, and how and through what classification schemes designers, developers and researchers analyse and address it..

Key words: Gender, generation, class, ethnicity, inclusion and exclusion, pluralism, cultural differences, multiculturalism, dissolution of boundaries, segregation/integration, global/local, multiple identities, individualisation, complexity, memory, tradition, diversity in the design space.

4. The reconfiguration of society

Society is constantly being transformed and technology plays a crucial role in this process, both influencing and reacting to this change. Both technology and our lives are constantly being ‘redesigned’ in a reciprocal process. This strand could cover issues such as ICTs and personal integrity, privacy and issues of surveillance; responsibility, technology overload, and problems of reliability in the light of an increased societal sensitivity to the break-down of technology; issues around the pressure to up-date technology and continuously to develop the skills needed for dealing with ICTs.

Key words: Transformation, structures, systems, emerging, dying, behaviour, policy, values, power, influence, intention, judgements, attitudes, globalisation, convergences, digitalisation, labour, economics, organisation, institutions, regulation, ethics, health and environmental work, privacy, family system, social networks, life stages, membership, control, political system.

As a collaborative knowledge-building event, this conference aims to be more than a one-off meeting by providing a base for further networking and interchange between the key stakeholders in developing our technological futures.


GUIDELINES TO PARTICIPANTS

In the spirit of the conference we would encourage those considering submitting papers to reflect on three aspects. These are
(a) the basis for making evaluations of ICTs,
(b) the implications for the future design of ICTs and
(c) directions for future research.
At the stage of reviewing abstracts, reviewers will make suggestions towards this end. More information will be available later on the conference website at http://www.cost269.org/conference.html.

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

As the organisers wish to continue the development of the collaborative aspects of the conference, we strongly encourage the potential participants to submit an expression of interest in participating, so that we can inform them of important new developments through email. The expression of interest in participating can be submitted to the Conference Chair

STRUCTURE OF THE CONFERENCE

We see this conference as being a collaborative knowledge-building event. It aspires to work towards building a network of excellence and to define and develop central issues around the use of ICTs. This goal is reflected in the structure of the conference. Papers will be presented within workgroups that will then be given the task of integrating and building upon the individual presentations. Therefore everyone can participate in several workgroups over the course of the conference. A panel will lead a discussion of the conclusions of each workgroup at the end. Other innovative approaches, including multimedia presentations, will be explored.

LANGUAGE

The official language of the Conference will be English.