CFP: CaTaC'14: Culture, Technology, Communication: Celebration, Transformation, New Directions

Venue: Department of Informatics, Ole-Johan Dahls hus, University of Oslo 

Dates: June 17-20, 2014 (Predoctoral PhD workshop: time and date TBA) 

http://www.catacconference.org/

Conference Co-organizers 

• Charles Ess (Department of Media and Communication) 
• Maja van der Velden (Department of Informatics) 

Organizing Committee 

• José Abdelnour-Nocera (School of Computing and Technology, University of West London) 
• Herbert Hrachovec (Philosophy Department, University of Vienna) 
• Leah Macfadyen (Evaluation and Learning Analytics, University of British Columbia) 
• Patrizia Schettino (Communication Studies, Università della Svizzera italiana) 
• Ylva Hård af Segerstad (Department of Applied Information Technology at the University of Gothenburg/Chalmers) 
• Andra Siibak (Media Studies, University of Tartu) 
• Michele M. Strano, Program Chair (Communication Studies, Bridgewater College) 
• Satomi Sugiyama (Communication and Media Studies, Franklin College Switzerland)

Background. 

Our 1998 conference on “Culture, Technology, and Communication” (CATaC) was among the first devoted to the roles of culturally-variable norms, practices, and communicative preferences in the designs, implementations, and responses to (networked) information and communication technologies. The biennial CATaC series has generated a number of significant publications; the series has also been ranked by the Australian Research Council among the top 20% of conferences in terms of international impact and significance. Equally importantly: our critical but collegial conference culture provides a unique oasis for participants who shared often radically interdisciplinary interests. 

Transformation.

As the Internet and then the World Wide Web have come to now connect over 2 billion people globally, the questions of culture and communication vis-à-vis (networked) ICTs have become increasingly mainstream and widely explored across the needed range of disciplines, conferences, and publication venues. At the same time, however, there is ongoing need for a conference venue that fosters new explorations at the intersections of culture, technology, and communication – as approached in ways that are: 

• robustly interdisciplinary / cross-disciplinary; 
• cordially but rigorously critical; 
• inclusive of the philosophical, including the ethical and political dimensions of ICT design and diffusion; 
• relational, bringing out the entanglements of culture, communication, and technology; 
• and within a conference environment shaped by our hallmark hospitality and collegiality. 

Accordingly, CaTaC’14 will 

• celebrate the people and accomplishments of the past conference series, including the production of a Festschrift; and 
• transform the conference series through development of 
• new research, directions and approaches. 

We invite both participation in the opening Doctoral Colloquium and paper and panel submissions that address the intersections between culture, technology, and communication with a focus on either Design/Production or Practice.

CFP: Skype Connections and the Gaze of Friendship and Family

This is a mini academic conference, sponsored by Skype and MSR, into research on video-mediated communications in private and domestic life. It is particularly interested in the interactional properties of these communications – the forms of talk, gaze and mutual attention rather than the HCI and design aspects (which future events might look at). It will be held on Jun 3rd and 4th at MSR Cambridge. June 3rd and 4th, 2014, Microsoft Research Cambridge, 21 Station Rd, Cambridge, CB12FB 

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/events/scgff/

Chairs: Richard Harper, Microsoft Research Cambridge. 

Christian Licoppe, Telecom Paristech. 

Rod Watson, Institut Marcel Mauss, Paris. 

Call: This invites extended abstracts (of up to 600 words excluding title and affiliation) reporting theoretical and empirical research into the interactional order of video calling in domestic and personal life. Ethnomethodological and conversation analytic perspectives are particularly welcomed on such things as: 

• the relationship between the sequential patterns of communication and the medium of Skype-type video connections in the social and family sphere; 
• the methods and patterns of recipient design and repair within such communications; 
• the properties and shape of topic management (e.g., news announcements and personal disclosures); 
• the character and role of embodiment and embodied interaction in such communications; 
• the salience of the visual and 'visual availability'; 
• the relation between individual instances of Skype-type communications and the larger activity assemblies of which they are a part – whether it be a routine ‘catch-up’ calls within friendship or a special occasion like a dinner or birthday celebration for a distributed family. 

These are of course not exclusive and other topics are welcome. 

There will be a preference for wholly original work, though research previously presented of an extremely high quality may be considered. The conference will be framed by keynote addresses by leaders in the field of interaction analysis, CA and ethnomethodology. Announcement of these will be made shortly. 

A selection of papers from the conference will be prepared for a Special Issue of Pragmatics, the Journal of the International Pragmatics Association. 

Selection will be made by the conference chairs and reviewing panel. 

For informal enquiries about the topics and format of the event, please contact Richard Harper (r.harper@microsoft.com). 

To attend (as speaker or auditor), email scgff@microsoft.com Attendance at the conference is free and will include attendance at a gala dinner in a Cambridge College. 

Some support for researchers seeking to attend the event is available. 

Accommodation and Conference schedule The conference organisers will assist in arranging accommodation. Advice on travel to Cambridge will be available on request. The conference programme will be finalised after extended abstracts have been accepted.

CFP: VISUAL LEARNING: PICTURES – PARABLES – PARADOXES

Conference to take place in Budapest, November 14–15, 2014 Conference organized by the Visual Learning Lab, Department of Technical Education, Budapest University of Technology and Economics. 

Speakers will include: 

• Petra Aczél (Budapest) 
• Paul Boghossian (New York), concluding plenary talk 
• James E. Katz (Boston) 
• Zoltán Kövecses (Budapest/Heidelberg) 
• Dieter Mersch (Zurich) 
• Philipp Stoellger (Rostock), opening plenary talk 
• Péter Zilahy (Berlin/Boston) 

With the linguistic turn having become past history, and the iconic turn no doubt victorious, second thoughts are gradually arising: Is that victory not a much too complete one? Are philosophers, cognitive scientists, media theorists, and educationalists in particular, sufficiently aware of the dangers the neglect of a polished verbal logic and of verbal culture imply? Maintaining the right equilibrium between the pictorial and the verbal has once more become a burning issue. 

Contributions are invited from educational, communication, and media theorists, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, and other interested scholars on the following and related topics: 

• educational theory and visual learning 
• resemblance, representation, reality 
• image and language 
• images and media theory 
• visual rhetoric 
• pictorial meaning 
• pictorial communication – visual imagery visual intelligence 
• the visual mind 
• the image problem in the history of philosophy 
• visual argument 
• scientific visualization 
• visualization and higher education 
• images in the network age 

A slot of altogether 35 minutes is planned for each presentation. We envisage an ensuing volume of selected papers (vol. 5 in the series Visual Learning, ed. by András Benedek and Kristóf Nyíri). 

Submission of abstracts (max. 200 words) and short biographical statements (max. 100 words) by July 15, 2014. Please send your submissions simultaneously to Prof. András Benedek (Head, Department of Technical Education) and to Kristóf Nyíri (Professor of Philosophy, Department of Technical Education). Those submitting abstracts will be notified of the decision concerning acceptance by Aug. 1, 2014. 

No conference fees will be charged. Participants are encouraged to arrange their own accommodation. The conference venue (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, 1117 Budapest, Magyar Tudósok körútja 2, Bld. Q, Wing A) is located near downtown Budapest.

Living inside mobile social information

Living inside mobile social information

James E. Katz (Eds.)

Citation: Katz, J. E. (Eds.)(2014). Living inside mobile social information. Dayton, OH: Greyden Press.

The Social Media President

The Social Media President: Barack Obama and the Politics of Digital Engagement

James E. Katz, Michael Barris, and Anshul Jain

Prominent in Barack Obama's political campaigns and presidency has been a promise to use social media tools to engage American citizens in the business of democratic governance, stirring the hopes of millions who believe in the democratizing potential of information and communication technology. Yet what has become of these promises? To what extent have they been realized? Shattering views of social media as a cure-all for limits on citizen deliberation and governmental representation, The Social Media President: Barack Obama and the Politics of Digital Engagement analyzes the White House's use of Twitter and other online tools for a wide range of policy initiatives and strategic campaigns. Drawing on interviews, case studies and social-media content, the authors provide a bold take on a subject too frequently prone to exaggerated expectations. By examining presidential campaigns since 1992 and the actions of President Obama since taking office in 2009, a clearer picture emerges about the strengths and weaknesses of social media for public engagement. In terms of setting national policy, or getting systematic citizen input, a social media-enabled future would not only be difficult to implement with foreseeable technology, it could actually erode democratic institutions of voting and representation. Yet social media's prominence continues to grow and it is destined to play an ever-larger role in political rhetoric, campaign strategies, governance appeals and public debate. The thoughtful attention the authors provide to the successes, limitations and missed opportunities of the Obama Administration should command the interest of concerned scholars, practitioners and citizens everywhere.

About the Author
James E. Katz, Ph.D., is the Feld Family Professor of Emerging Media at Boston University's College of Communication where he also he directs its Division of Emerging Media Studies. Prior to coming to Boston, Katz was the Board of Governors Professor of Communication at Rutgers University. Winner of numerous awards for his scholarship on communication technology, including a lifetime achievement award from the American Sociological Association, Katz is frequently invited to keynote international conferences. His books include the Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies and Magic in the Air: Mobile Communication and the Transformation of Social Life.
Michael Barris is a New York-based reporter covering international business news for the online, video and print markets. His background includes working for Dow Jones Newswires where he was a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal. He holds a master's degree in communication from Rutgers University.
Anshul Jain is currently completing his doctorate in political science at Boston University. His research interests broadly span the fields of political communication, international relations, American politics, and history. Anshul previously taught with the Boston public schools and is a graduate of Duke University.

Citation:

Katz, J. E., Barris, M., & Jain, A. (2014). The social media president: Barack Obama and the politics of digital engagement. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.