[Ci4cg-announce] Communities & Technologies 2017, Troyes, France - *Extended Deadline* for Papers, Case Studies, and Workshops

[Doug Schuler]

Due to multiple requests, the deadline for submitting papers (full and
short), workshop proposals and case studies has been **extended to February
15, 2017 (23:59 CET)**. See full details below.


C&T 2017 – Technology for the Common Good
26-30 June 2017, Université de Technologie de Troyes, France
http://comtech.community/


== ABOUT C&T

The biennial Communities and Technologies (C&T) conference is the premier
international forum for stimulating scholarly debate and disseminating
research on the complex connections between communities – both physical and
virtual – and information and communication technologies.

C&T 2017 welcomes participation from researchers, designers, educators,
industry, and students from the many disciplines and perspectives bearing
on the interaction between community and technology, including
architecture, arts, business, design, economics, education, engineering,
ergonomics, informatics, information technology, geography, health,
humanities, law, media and communication studies, and social sciences. For
the 2017 round of C&T, we welcome contributions that particularly pay
attention on technology that can be deployed for the common good.

The conference program will include competitively selected, peer-reviewed
papers and case studies, as well as pre-conference workshops, a doctoral
consortium, and invited keynotes.

We look forward to welcoming you to an exciting conference in Troyes!

Myriam Lewkowicz, Markus Rohde
Conference Chairs
chairs at comtech.community


== IMPORTANT DATES

* February 15 *extended*: Papers (full and short), workshop proposals and
case studies due
* March 15: Notification of acceptance for workshops proposals
* April 15: Notification of acceptance for papers (full and short) and case
studies
* May 2: Camera-ready for papers (full and short), workshop descriptions
and case studies due
* May 2: Doctoral Consortium applications due
* May 30: Workshop papers due
* June 26-30: Workshops and conference in Troyes, France


== CALL FOR PAPERS (FULL AND SHORT)

C&T focuses on the notion of communities as social entities comprised of
people who share something in common; this common element may be geography,
needs, goals, interests, practices, organizations, enemies, or other bases
for social connection. Communities are considered to be a basic unit of
social experience.

For the 2017 round of C&T, we welcome contributions that particularly pay
attention on technology that can be deployed for the common good. This
raises a number of questions, issues, and implications that might not be
relevant in other computing related conferences. The common good generally
means finding peaceful ways to resolve conflict, securing a more equitable
society, a healthy and diverse environment for ourselves and future
generations, and cultural diversity.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can support community
formation and development by facilitating communication and coordination
among members, as well as enable and empower communities to deal with
challenges and threats. We must also acknowledge the possibility that ICTs
could be used in processes that degrade communities or community life; some
ICTs could actually be antithetical to healthy communities. In this case
certain developments should at the very least be questioned, if not
actively discouraged. For this reason we also encourage critiques of
existing systems, approaches, policies, and trajectories— any of the
factors that encourage private gain at the expense of the common good.

It’s not enough to assert that some particular technology will support the
common good. Too often, in fact, the assumption is that a particular
technological approach — if not the whole of ICT development — is
steadfastly advancing towards a state of maximal support for the common
good. What lines of argument can we develop that help support a case that a
technological approach will support the common good — or wouldn’t? As
researchers and academics we must entertain the possibility that our
investigations may force us to revise some of our own approaches and
assumptions, including rethinking who are the stakeholders of our work, and
how our work should be evaluated.

Modeling and designing the world we’d like to see can provide invaluable
insights. Beyond conducting research and developing tools, services,
policy, and the like, we aim to build the circumstances that help promote
this work and the orientation in the world. What systems can help encourage
civic intelligence and public problem solving? How do we recognize systems
that discourage them? Are certain approaches to design, deployment, etc.
more likely to result in systems that support the common good? And, if so,
where have these been used—and with what degree of success. This focus
acknowledges the reality that technological systems exist within social
environments and frameworks, policy proposals, and educational approaches
may be extremely relevant.

Finally, how do we as a community identify our goals, gather our
information, and report our findings as to help the communities upon whom
we rely to use the information most effectively?

Topics appropriate for submission to this conference are manifold. And they
may emerge from a variety of relevant perspectives including philosophy,
social sciences, design, art, the humanities, etc. Examples of some of the
vibrant areas of communities and technology research include, but are not
limited to:

* Domains such as learning/education, health, cultural heritage; crises and
natural disasters; environmental degradation and climate change;
* Variety of communities and their relationships to technology; urban and
rural, migrants, refugees, indigenous and first peoples, LGBTQ, low-income
communities, measuring impacts on communities —positive, negative, and mixed
* Bottom-up movements, grassroots developments, civic activism, community
engagement, participatory publics, communities and innovation;
* Crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, collective and civic intelligence, community
learning, early warning systems, collective awareness, collaborative
awareness platforms; social cognition; community emotion; happiness;
historical memory;
* Community owned and operated technology, DIY and maker communities
(makerspaces, fablabs, crafters); community agriculture;
* Online and offline communities, urban and rural communities; urban
technologies; urban informatics; urban interaction design; cross-community
work; new forms of communities;
* Community memory, archives, and knowledge; resilience; smart communities
in the context of smart cities; sustainable communities; economic and
social development;
* Civic problem-solving, communities in relation to urgent and complex
challenges to the health of the planet and the people that inhabit it;
collaborative systems; partnering with education; government, civil
society, and movements;
* Sharing economies; social media and social capital; associations, strong
and weak ties, stakeholders;
* Methodological issues including research, action, participatory
approaches, community-centred design, infrastructuring and evaluation
methodologies; ethnographic and case studies of communities;
* Supporting community processes: sensemaking, online deliberation;
argumentation and discussion-mapping; community ideation and idea
management systems; collective decision-making; group memory; participatory
sensory networks;
* Technological issues: community toolkits; federated systems; integration
with other systems, integration with face-to-face systems;
* The future of communities and technology; simulations and utopian design;
durable relationships and long-range goals; and
* Developing and supporting the Communities & Technologies community;
social and technological critique; effectiveness and other measures

== Submitting a Paper

Please submit all papers and abstracts using the ACM recommended templates.
Papers will be submitted via EasyChair.

In order to allow for a diversity of contributions, the conference will
accept full and short research papers.
* Full papers must be no longer than ten pages, including all additional
material such as references, appendices, and figures.
* Short (or Work-in-progress) papers must be no longer than four pages.

The papers must include a title, sufficient space for the author name(s) to
appear on the paper, abstract, keywords, body, and references. Papers
submitted by the due date will undergo a double blind peer review process
by the Program Committee and will be evaluated on the basis of their
significance, innovation, academic rigour, and clarity of writing.

The C&T proceedings are part of the International Conference Proceedings
Series published by ACM.

Please send any questions to the Program Chairs: papers at comtech.community

Ingrid Mulder, Douglas Schuler
Program Chairs


== CASE STUDIES

This year, C&T introduces a new category of submissions: Case Studies.

With this category, we encourage C&T researchers or practitioners to
present a case study or an experience report of real-world cases projects
that provide new insights and learnings to other C&T researchers and
practitioners. In general, both kinds of research are welcome – more
analytical (such as ethnographical case studies and historical analysis of
case) as well as more action-oriented (such as design case studies, action
research reports). In addition, methodological reflections about case study
research are appreciated.

== What counts as a good case study research

Case studies should be inspiring, but should not be constrained by
traditional academic expectations. The primary criteria is relevance in
making a significant contribution to the community.

Successful case studies will meet the following criteria: they report on
new work that derives in original insights, they have the potential for
real impact on the C&T body of knowledge and practice, they report on very
specific or singular communities or experiences.

They shed light into emerging and/or marginalized topics and address
existing gaps in the broader C&T methods and understanding. Suggested
topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

* Technology design and use in the developing world and non-Western
societies
* Research of a specific domain, user group, organisation or experience,
discussing its rationale, any issues, and lessons learned
* Pilot studies preceding and informing larger-scale investigations
* Application, critique, or evolution of a method, process, theory, or tool
* Challenges to existing notions of Research, Design, Theory, and Practice
* Revisiting definitions of C&T practice
* The role of technology in civic activism, community engagement,
participatory publics
* The role of technology in the context of the refugee and migrant crisis
* The role of technology in consumer empowerment (supply chain
transparency, open data, etc.)
* Sharing and commoning practices (communities and the sharing economy
and/or commons-based production)

Other more specific areas of interest:

* Uses and misuses of technology by communities
* New maker practices
* Technology in humanitarian crisis contexts
* Decentralisation and blockchain
* Gender and technology
* HCI teaching and learning in education, training, or knowledge sharing.
* ‘Big Ideas’ and how to make them happen

== Preparing and submitting your case study

Case studies will be submitted via EasyChair.

The Case Study submissions must be reported using the ACM recommended
templates, should not exceed 5 pages, and can include supplementary
material in the form of pictures, videos, documents, websites, etc. If
supplementary materials are submitted, we request authors to include a list
of the supplementary documents in their submission and a description of the
nature and purpose of each item.

Submissions will undergo a peer review process by the Program Committee
members. Accepted case study reports will be published in the Proceedings,
together with long and short papers.

The C&T proceedings are part of the International Conference Proceedings
Series published by ACM.

Please send any questions to the Case Studies Chairs:
casestudies at comtech.community

Mara Balestrini, Gunnar Stevens
Case Studies Chairs


== WORKSHOPS

C&T Workshops will run for a half or one full day and will take place on June
26th or June 27th.

Workshops provide a platform to discuss, explore and advance specific
research areas of Communities & Technologies with a group of like-minded
researchers and practitioners. Each workshop should generate ideas that
give the C&T community a new, innovative way of thinking about the topic,
or ideas that suggest promising directions for future research. Topics
addressed may include (but are not limited to) theories, methodologies,
artifacts in practices, emerging application areas, design innovations,
strategy and organizational issues pertaining to communities and technology.

While workshop summaries will be integrated into the conference proceedings
published by ACM (pending), organizers can consider converting individual
workshop papers into edited books or special issues of journals.
Furthermore, there is the option of publishing the workshop submissions
(all contributions) as an International Report on Socio-Informatics (IRSI):
http://www.iisi.de/en/international-reports-on-socio-informatics-irsi/. You
may consider including such publication goals in your workshop proposal.

A workshop proposal must be prepared according to ACM recommended templates
and should be no more than 4 pages including references. Furthermore each
proposal should:

* include the title of the workshop,
* list organizers and their backgrounds,
* provide workshop’s theme, goals and activities,
* indicate maximum number of participants,
* provide means of soliciting and selecting participants.

Please send proposals directly to the Workshop Chairs:
workshops at comtech.community

Sukeshini A. Grandhi, Lars Rune Christensen Workshop Chairs


== DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM

The Doctoral Consortium is scheduled prior to the main conference
programme, on Sunday 25 June 2017. The Doctoral Consortium (DC) offers
research students a special forum where they can present, discuss and
progress their research plans with peers and established senior researchers.

We especially welcome contributions which are related to the overall C&T
conference theme, which is devoted to technology that can be deployed for
the common good. This encompasses questions and approaches which are
concerned with securing healthy and diverse ways of societal development.
However, all contributions falling in the scope of the C&T conference are
welcome.

Research students wishing to attend the doctoral consortium should submit
up to 4 pages, using the ACM templates, addressing the following:

* Introduction setting up your research area and specific research
question(s)/goals(s) (including key related work);
* Overall research approach, methodology, and expected contributions;
* Work in progress (including findings to date and next steps);
* Questions and issues for discussion, and what you hope to gain from
attending the DC;
* Short bio.

Please send proposals directly to the Doctoral Consortium Chairs:
dc at comtech.community

Yvonne Dittrich, Claudia Müller
Doctoral Consortium Chairs
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