Conference CFP (2015) - Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice (SWPACA)

Call for Papers: Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area 36th Annual Southwest Popular / American Culture Association Conference
February 11-14, 2015 Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center Albuquerque, NM http://www.southwestpca.org

The Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area welcomes papers, panels, and other proposals on games (digital and otherwise) and their study and development. The Area is also offering a three hour workshop titled "Empathy Game Design: A Quick Introduction" on the first day of the conference.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Possible topics include (but are in no way limited to):

• Advertising (both in-game and out)
• Alternative reality games
• Archiving and artifactual preservation
• Competitive/clan gaming
• Design and development

Economic and industrial histories and studies Educational games and their pedagogies Foreign language games and culture Game art/game-based art (including game sound) Haptics and interface studies Histories of games Localization Machinima MOGs, MMOGs, and other forms of online/networked gaming Performance Pornographic games Religion and games Representations of race and gender Representations of space and place The rhetoric of games and game systems Serious games Strategy games Table-top games and gaming Technological, aesthetic, economic, and ideological convergence Theories of play Wireless and mobile gaming

For paper proposals: Please submit a 250 word abstract and brief biographical sketch to the conference event management site: http://conference2014.southwestpca.org/. Make sure to select the Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice topic area. The submission deadline is 11/1/2014.

For panel and other proposals: Feel free to query the Area Chair first (Judd Ruggill, Arizona State University, jruggill@asu.edu). Panel and other proposals should also be submitted to the conference event management site and include the information requested for individual paper proposals (each on a separate submission form), as well as a 100-word statement of the panel's raison d'etre and any noteworthy organizational features.

As always, proposals are welcome from any and all scholars (including graduate students, independent scholars, and tenured, tenure-track, and emeritus faculty) and practitioners (developers, artists, archivists, and so forth). Also, unusual formats, technologies, and the like are encouraged.

AWARD
Graduate students accepted to present in this area may apply for the conference's monetary Computer Culture and Game Studies Award. The full paper is due to the judges on 12/15/2014. For details on this award and the conference's other awards for graduate students, see http://southwestpca.org/conference/graduate-student-awards/.

WORKSHOP
The Area Research Coordinator is pleased to announce this year's Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice workshop, "Empathy Game Design: A Quick Introduction." The workshop will be led by Carly Kocurek (Illinois Institute of Technology). Participants will explore the emerging genre
of empathy games, which includes titles such as _Depression Quest_,_Spent_, _That Dragon_, _Cancer_, and _dys4ia_, and work collaboratively to conceptualize games of their own. No technical knowledge or prior experience is necessary.

The workshop is limited to 10 participants, and the goal is for participants to leave with a game concept and list of potential development tools. The limited number of participants will ensure that everyone involved will get the time and attention they need. If you would like to enroll in the workshop, please email a 100-250 word statement of interest to the Area Research Coordinator (Jennifer deWinter at jdewinter@wpi.edu) and Carly Kocurek (ckocurek@iit.edu). 

Nota bene: There is no charge for the workshop (for registered conference presenters/attendees).

The submission deadline is 1/15/15.

COLLABORATION & PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES
The Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area is international in scope and emphasizes diversity, an openness to innovative approaches and presentations, and the energetic practice of post-conference collaboration and publication.

The Area Research Coordinator would like to note the following publication opportunities for this year's participants:

1. The SWPACA's peer-reviewed journal, _Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy_, welcomes submissions. Pleasevisit http://journaldialogue.org for information on the journal and submission process.
2. As an official affiliate of the SWPACA, _Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture_ always welcomes papers, especially from new scholars and from emerging disciplines. For more information about the journal, visit http://reconstruction.eserver.org/.

For more information about these opportunities, or to discuss others, please email the Area Research Coordinator (Jennifer deWinter, jdewinter@wpi.edu).

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

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 email scgff@microsoft.com

Attendance at the conference is free and will include attendance at a gala dinner in Queens College, Cambridge on Tuesday, June 3rd.

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

Accommodation and Conference schedule

Please find information on accommodation and how to find us here.

The conference programme will be finalised after extended abstracts have been accepted. 

CFP: The Governance of Digital Technology, Big Data, and the Internet: New Roles and Responsibilities for Business

Special Issue of Business & Society
The Governance of Digital Technology, Big Data, and the Internet: New Roles and Responsibilities for Business

Guest editors:
Mikkel Flyverbom , Copenhagen Business School
Ronald Deibert, Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
Dirk Matten , Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto


Background

The importance of digital technologies for social and economic developments and a growing focus on data collection and privacy concerns have made the internet a salient and visible issue in global politics. Recent developments, such as the information released by Edward Snowden and others, have increased the awareness that the current approach of governments and business to the governance of the internet and the adjacent technological spaces raises a host of ethical issues. Examples include states tracking citizens online, governments filtering or turning off the internet at will, and corporations using personal data for commercial purposes. The significance and challenges of the digital age have been further accentuated by a string of highly exposed cases of surveillance and a growing concern about how states and corporations use digital traces to do various sorts of tracking and profiling of citizens and users. Despite this growing focus on digital formations, surprisingly little research has explored questions about the relations between business, governance and the internet. This special issue of Business & Society therefore invites scholars to explore what some have referred to as the ‘internet-industrial complex’ – the intersections between business, states and other actors in the shaping, development and governance of the internet.
Relevant topics include, but are not limited to the following aspects:

• The unclear relations between companies and governments in the internet domain; 
• The roles and responsibilities of very visible internet companies such as Google and Facebook; 
• The largely covert operations of state- and private actors in internet surveillance, data aggregation and profiling; 
• Questions of internet governance, such as new policy initiatives challenging the historical US control over core components of the internet infrastructure; 
• Organizational developments, such as the emergence of multi-stakeholder forums, where business, governments and civil society actors seek to shape the internet domain;

The growing importance of large internet companies in advocacy, policy debates and lobbying efforts. These developments include the increasingly visible and well-resourced presence of internet companies and internet-focused think tanks in settings such as Washington DC and Brussels, and the worldwide spread of policy directors, research centers and advocacy efforts funded by internet companies;

• The rapidly growing ecosystem of mobile phones and applications which allow for new communications and information experiences – even in in countries that have weak democracies or authoritarian regimes; 
• New questions about tracking and data sharing in mobile applications which can (and sometimes do) give themselves permission to access a wide range of users’ data contained in their devices, from contacts, to archives of text messages, to images and videos as well as geo-location. Whether, how, and how often such data is shared with governments in particular jurisdictions, and to what extent device and application manufacturers proactively take steps to either filter or monitor users, are some of the most important questions of concerning government-private sector interaction; 
• The growing focus on data as a resource for economic, organizational and regulatory developments. In this area, we see not only widespread excitement about ‘big data’, but also a growing focus on data protection and privacy, and an emergent pressure for corporations to be more transparent about their collection, use and recirculation of data; 
• The potential and real benefits of internet usage and technological developments for wider society, and reflections on future avenues and possibilities for the governance of the internet.

Types of Submissions

This special issue seeks to expand our knowledge of the intersections between business management, global governance and the digital domain. As such it invites contributions from a broad range of social and political science disciplines, including business, law, politics, international relations, sociology, and philosophy.
The Special Issue will feature papers that pave new empirical and conceptual ground in this emergent field of research. We seek both papers that deliver in-depth empirical explorations of the topic and papers providing theoretical conceptualization, analytical vocabularies and innovative methods for the understanding of the intersection between business and governance in the internet domain. We particularly encourage submissions that develop our theoretical understanding of the phenomena by showcasing relevant conceptual and analytical approaches, such as (but not limited to) institutional theory, actor-network theory, cultural theory. This may include a variety of theoretical approaches from various social science disciplines including media studies, governance, organization and communication.


Submission process and schedule

• Authors should submit their manuscripts through ScholarOne Manuscripts by March 1st, 2015 to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bas . 
• Be sure to specify in the cover letter document that the manuscript is for the special issue on “Governance of Digital Technology.” 
• Manuscripts should be prepared following the Business & Society author guidelines: http://www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal200878/manuscriptSubmission . 
• All articles will be double-blind peer reviewed by at least three anonymous referees. 
• The editors welcome informal enquiries related to the proposed topics. 
• Authors of papers selected for publication will be invited for a manuscript development workshop (time and location TBA) before the final submission is due.

About the journal

Business & Society is one of the leading journals at the intersection of business and issues of social responsibility, ethics and governance. It is published by SAGE and its current two-year Citation Impact Factor is 1.936 (2012). It was ranked 31 out of 116 journals in the Business category of the 2012 Thomson Reuters Journals Citation Report (ISI). For further details see http://bas.sagepub.com .


About the guest editors

Mikkel Flyverbom (mfl.ikl@cbs.dk) is Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School and founder of the CBS Big Data Forum. Recent publications include the monograph The Power of Networks: Organizing the Global Politics of the Internet (Edward Elgar 2011), and articles in journals such as Organization and Global Networks . His research focuses on internet governance, transparency, corporate advocacy and sociological questions about big data.

Ronald Deibert ( r.deibert@utoronto.ca) is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Citizen Lab and Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. Recent publications include Black Code: Surveillance, Privacy, and the Dark Side of the Internet (Random House 2013), Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights and Rule in Cyberspace (MIT 2010), and articles in International Organization, Global Governance, Review of International Studies , and others. He was a co-founder and principal investigator of the OpenNet Initiative and Information Warfare Monitor projects.

Dirk Matten ( dmatten@schulich.yorku.ca) holds the Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto. He has published 15 books on CSR and business ethics as well as numerous articles in journals including Academy of Management Review , Journal of Management Studies, and Organization Studies . He is interested in CSR, business ethics and comparative international management. 

CFP: Special Issue Submissions Future of Mass Communication Theory and Research in a Changing Communication Environment

Deadline Extended for Submissions to Special Issue of Mass Communication & Society

Mass Communication & Society
Deadline Extended to Oct. 1, 2014 for Special Issue Submissions Future of Mass Communication Theory and Research in a Changing Communication Environment 

Guest Editor: L. W. Jeffres, Cleveland State University

Many of the key mass communication theories mined by scholars today emerged when what constitutes mass media was clear and relatively unambiguous.  Thus, relationships between mass and interpersonal communication were often central themes-in diffusion of innovations, the spiral of silence, the knowledge gap, two-step flow, and agenda-setting.  Similarly, it was fairly straight forward to link uses and gratifications or the cultivation of audience perceptions to media patterns.  And while research programs have advanced our knowledge following these traditions in the past couple decades, the communication environment has changed dramatically.  The premise of this special issue is that our concepts, conceptualizations, and theories need to be re-examined as the boundaries between forms of communication have become less clear.  Technology has blurred the boundaries not only between mass and interpersonal communication but also complicated relationships among forms of media and key concepts important to our theories. Making all forms of communication mobile and shifting control from encoders (media organizations) to decoders (audiences) through social media and the Internet challenges notions of social control and our models of persuasion and media effects.  Nevertheless, the one concept that has not "changed" is "communication," here taken to refer to symbolic activity-encoding and decoding of messages-regardless of whether that occurs via legacy media, websites, blogs, twitter, skyping, the cell phone or in public forums or conversations, one to one, one to many, in groups, organizations or communities. Remembering that our concepts should capture reality, how should we define "mass media" today-does a "mix of attributes" approach work?  If Chaffee and Metzger were right about the end of "mass communication," how should we/media scholars conceptualize media effects?  Can we still talk about the functions of media in society with shifting control! A noted scholar said that the one concept unique to communication was "message," which was located in the clothes-line definition of communication next to channel, between sending/encoding and receiving/decoding processes, and before feedback.  How do we conceptualize this important concept of communication and the others in this traditional definition when we have concepts that include: news, entertainment, information, content, email newsletters, websites, blogs, twitter, platform, interaction, networks, news aggregators, RSS feeds, platforms, social media, and so forth?  Unfortunately, our language has not caught up with these changes, and both popular pundits and sometimes researchers treat technology as media, mix up modes and platforms and content and messages such that our theoretical advances are muddled.  In the era of Web 3.0 and G4, this is an ideal time to stand back and see if we can provide more conceptual clarity for our theory construction and empirical advancement.

Can we develop new concepts and new theories that realistically describe the current environment or must we proceed piecemeal with our empirical studies, focusing on each new technology and each new wrinkle in how communication organizations and activity are organized?  Can the key theories mentioned above be applied to the current environment by examining key assumptions and making revisions? If so, how do the blurring boundaries among forms of communication argue for shifting our theories up to the community level and focusing on communication systems?  Philosophers of science argue that parsimony is to be valued in theory construction.  This might be an excellent time for theory integration through theory construction that integrates the past with the present. 

Mass Communication & Society invites submissions for a special issue devoted to a symposium on the future of mass communication theory and research in a rapidly changing communication environment.  A wide range of manuscripts is welcome, including conceptual essays, examinations of specific mass communication theories with attention to the issues raised here, efforts to integrate sets of mass communication theories as suggested above, empirical studies that bear on the issues, theory construction efforts, and concept explications that clarify the literature.

Deadline for submissions:  Manuscripts are to be submitted by Oct. 1, 2014, via the Mass Communication & Society online system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mcas following the standard journal submission procedures.  Authors should note in their cover letters that the submission is for the special issue devoted to the "Future of Mass Communication Theory and Research in a Changing Communication Environment."  Final publication will be in Volume 18 (2015).  In addition to the electronic submission process, please send one hard copy to: Leo Jeffres, School of Communication, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115.  Any questions concerning this call for papers or the symposium can be directed to Leo W. Jeffres, l.jeffres@csuohio.edu, tel: 216-687-5088 (office).

CFP: 6th International Conference on Intelligent Human-Computer Interaction (IHCI 2014)

CALL FOR PAPERS 6th International Conference on Intelligent Human-Computer Interaction IHCI 2014 Evry, France, December 8-10, 2014 http://ihci2014.telecom-sudparis.eu Important dates: Papers submission before June 30, 2014 (extended) Notification by September 10, 2014 Final version due September 30, 2014 Venue: December 8-10, 2014 (in Evry, France) The international conference on Intelligent Human-Computer Interaction (IHCI) is a forum for the presentation of technological advances and research results at the crossroads of human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, signal processing and computer vision. It brings together engineers and scientists from various application fields and from around the world. The 6th edition in the series, IHCI 2014, will be held in Evry (near Paris), France, on December 8-10, 2014. See: http://ihci2014.telecom-sudparis.eu. Keynote speeches will be given by: Prof. Catherine Pelachaud (Telecom ParisTech & CNRS/LTCI) on “Interacting with socio-emotional agents” and Prof. Anatole Lécuyer (INRIA/IRISA) on “Using Eyes, Hands, and Brain for 3D Interaction with Virtual Environments”. Prof. Gabriella Pasi (Milano Bicocca University, Italy) on “Exploiting users preferences and users actions in defining user models for personalised search”. Theoretical, practical and application-oriented contributions are invited from prospective authors. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): Signal and vision based interaction Speech and text processing Vision-based face and motion capture Brain-computer interfaces Body sensors and communication Data mining, information retrieval Multimodal interface Intelligent Interfaces Natural language processing and dialogue Gesture models and recognition Cognitive models Affective and emotional models Applications Natural User Interfaces Human-robot interaction Virtual and augmented reality Remote and face-to-face collaboration Embodied conversational agents Mobile interfaces Health Games Every submission must identify the theme which best relates to the contents of the paper. All contributions should be of high quality, original and not published elsewhere or submitted for publication during the review period. Regular papers (6 to 8 pages) and poster papers (3 to 4 pages) will be blind reviewed by at least 2 members of the International Program Committee. Proceedings will be published by Elsevier in a dedicated online Computer Science Procedia issue that will be freely accessible (open access) on ScienceDirect.com (at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18770509).

CFP: Academic MindTrek Conference 2014

ACADEMIC MINDTREK CONFERENCE 2014
Call for Papers, Extended Abstracts, Posters, Demonstration, Workshops, Tutorials
4th to 7th November 2014
Tampere, Finland
http://www.academicmindtrek.org, http://www.mindtrek.org
Long and short papers, posters, demonstrations, and extended abstracts due on

• DEADLINE 30th June 2014

Workshops due on

• DEADLINE 30th June 2014 (extended)

Tutorials due on

• DEADLINE 30th Sept 2014

THEMES:

• Social Media
• Ambient/Ubiquitous Media & Open Source
• Business & Media
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Hybrid Media (new track!)
• Digital Games
• ICT & E-Government
• Information Systems & Management in Creativity Industry (new track!)

In cooperation with ACM, ACM SIGMM, and ACM SIGCHI
Contributions will be published in the ACM digital library and selected set of high-level work will be published as book chapters or in journals

CALL FOR PAPERS, ABSTRACTS, POSTERS, DEMOS, WORKSHOPS & TUTORIALS
We are pleased to invite you to the Academic MindTrek conference, 4th to 7th November 2014, which brings together a cross-disciplinary crowd of people to investigate current and emerging topics of media in many facets. The conference explores academically the emerging and frontier-breaking applications of new media in everyday contexts of leisure, business and organizational life. 4th November 2014 will be the main Academic MindTrek day with other sessions on the preceding and following days. Due to increasing popularity of the conference, we are extending the scope of Academic MindTrek 2014!

• The academic conference features eight major themes:
• Social Media
• Ambient/Ubiquitous Media & Open Source
• Business & Media
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Hybrid Media (new track!)
• Digital Games
• ICT & E-Government
• Information Systems & Management in Creativity Industry (new track!)

The MindTrek Association hosts a yearly conference, where the Academic MindTrek conference has been a part of this unique set of events comprising competitions, world famous keynote speakers, plenary sessions, media festivals, and workshops since 1997. It is a meeting place where researchers, experts and thinkers present results from their latest work regarding the development of Internet, interactive media, and the information society. It is a real chance for media enthusiasts to think outside the box.
Furthermore it brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines that are involved in the development of media in various fields, ranging from sociology and the economy to technology. The highest ranked papers are also published in academic journals (The highest ranked papers will be published in academic journals (e.g. in 2013 we published a selected set of articles in ACM Computers in Entertainment, Electronic Markets – The International Journal on Networked Business, and the International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence. The scientific part of the conference is organized in cooperation with ACM SIGMM, and ACM SIGCHI. Conference proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library). It also provides a chance to learn from the vast media genre at large and allows participants to exchange views with cross-disciplinary experts. The conference aims to provide insights about the convergence of the various media and the future of media and boasts of several high-level keynote speakers. A few examples from previous years: Steve Wozniak (Co-Founder, Apple Computers), David S. Cohen (Editor, Variety), Robert Neuman (Disney), Vili Lehdonvirta (University of Oxford), Keith Partridge, Tomi T. Ahonen (Consultant), Latif Ladid (IPV6 Forum), Beat Schwegler (Microsoft), Cinzia dal Zotto (Univ. of Neuchatel), Ari Ojansivu (Google), Ramine Darabiha (Rovio), Molly Ränge (Crowdculture), Slava Kozlov (Philips Design), Dave Nielsen (CloudCamp), Janne Järvinen (F-Secure), Olavi Toivainen (Nokia), Herbert Snorrason (OpenLeaks), Tuija Aalto (YLE), Juha Kaario (Varaani), among many others.

Conference Themes:
Academic Mindtrek is organized in Eight thematic tracks (HCI, Social media, Ambient/Ubiquitous media,media studies, open source, Art, Digital games & ICT/e Government). Depending on the audience you wish to reach, or which type of work you would like to present, you can submit your work to either one of these tracks.

Social Media
“Get social!” Social media and Web 2.0 technologies are applied in ever diverse practices both in private and public communities. Totally new business models are emerging, traditional communication and expression modalities are challenged, and new practices are constructed in the collaborative, interactive media space.

Ambient and Ubiquitous Media
“The medium is the message!” – This conference track focuses on the definition of ambient and ubiquitous media with a cross-disciplinary viewpoint: ambient media between technology, art, and content. The focus of this track is on applications, location based services, ubiquitous computation, augmented reality, theory, art-works, mixed reality concepts, the Web 3.0, and user experiences that make ubiquitous and ambient media tick.

Media Business, Media Production and Media Management
Media business and media management face the challenges of the emergence of new forms of digital media and focuses on leadership practices, business models and value chains. It discusses competition, patterns of media usage, advertising models, and how traditional media can cope with the challenges coming from digital media focusing on media business and media management issues.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
The wide field of HCI is to discuss issues around human computer interaction modalities, consumer experience, design of computer systems, human aspects, universal media access, ergonomics, communication, novel interaction modalities, privacy, trusted systems, interaction theories, and sociological and psychological factors. This theme of devotes to several of these aspects, and is targeted to the scientific community dealing with several applied and theoretical aspects of HCI and user experience.

Hybrid Media
Already today, the wall between physical and digital is starting to be less noticeable. For example, digital devices are now combined with traditionally non digital things, some examples being paper, cardboard and clothing. Application-toy hybrids are also common, such as digital games which utilize physical toys in some form. The hybrid media track is for publications where traditional media meets new media and where physical meets digital.

Digital Games
The culture and business of digital games is becoming increasingly varied. The current trends range from novel interface innovations and digital distribution channels to social game dynamics and player-generated content. The games track is open for theoretical works, empirical case studies and constructive projects.

ICT & E-Government
In recent years, ICT has played a pivotal role in the development of digital economy.This technology facilitates the rapid accumulation and dissemination of information, group interaction, communication, and collaboration. ICT has become one of the core elements of managerial reform around the world. Since the launch of web 2.0 and emergence of ICT infrastructure, processes and policies many governments and public officials use new online tools to communicate among themselves, and with organizations and citizens.

Information Systems & Management in Creativity Industry
The media and entertainment industry is the third largest industry segment for investments in information systems. This particular industry segment is faced with tremendous challenges in terms of organizational, transformational, leadership, customer behaviour, and technological changes. One particular challenge is the transformation of the analogue media world into its digital counterpart. As of today, the successive research of business information management and systems focusing on media and entertainment industries is rather fragmented and stretches over a wide area of research islands such as social media, eCommerce, or eBusiness. To face this challenge, this theme focuses on information management and systems for media and entertainment industries and highlighting their particular needs in production, distribution, and consumption in the larger context of media and entertainment industries.

Demonstrations
The aim is to gather demonstrations from researchers and professionals from the communities related to the topics of MindTrek. The objective for the demonstrations is to provide a forum for exchanging experiences, practical projects, or media demonstrators. The target audience includes members of the academic community, industry, or laboratories who can demonstrate the results of their research projects with a practical implementation.

Special academic sessions (e.g. tutorials, demonstrations, workshops, and multidisciplinary sessions) will be held parallel to the MindTrek business conference. Academic speakers and authors are warmly welcome to register for the business conference tracks as part of the academic conference with our special registration rate. The Academic MindTrek registration includes full service such as coffees, lunches, and social gatherings.
The organizing committee invites you to submit original high quality full papers, long or short, addressing the special theme and the topics, for presentation at the conference and inclusion in the proceedings.

Conference Publications
The scientific part of the conference is organized in cooperation with ACM SIGMM, and ACM SIGCHI. Conference proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library, which includes short and long papers, workshop proposals, demonstration proposals, and tutorial proposals. Extended abstracts will be published in the adjunct conference proceedings; however, they will not be published within the ACM Digital Library. Selected high quality papers will be published in international journals, as book chapters, edited books, or via open access journals. There will also be a reward for the overall best paper from the academic conference. All the papers should follow the style guidelines of the conference.

Short and Long Paper Proposals
All submissions will be peer-reviewed double blinded, therefore please remove any information that could give an indication of the authorship. Short papers should be between 2-4 pages long and the paper presentation will be 15 minutes plus 5 minutes discussion within a session; long papers should be 6-8 pages and will be presented in 20 minutes slots, plus 5 minutes discussion.

Workshop Proposals
Feel free to suggest workshops which are co-organized with the Academic MindTrek. Workshop proposals should include the organizing committee, a 2 page description of the theme of the workshop, a short CV of organizers, duration, the proceedings publisher, and the schedule. Workshop organizers also have the possibility to add publications to the main conference proceedings. Depending on the attracted number of papers for each workshop, we provide space for either half-day or full-day workshops. Previous examples include e.g. a workshop on eLearning. Nevertheless, feel free to suggestion your own.

Demonstrations Proposals
Demonstration proposals shall be 2-3 pages and include: a) a description and motivation of the demonstration; b) general architecture of the demonstration; c) description of the main features; d) a brief comparison with other existing related demonstrations; e) audio-visual materials to illustrate the demonstration (if applicable); f) the type of license, and g) the Internet address of the demonstration (if applicable). It is strongly recommended that the authors make the demonstration (or a suitable version or movie) on the Internet during the evaluation.

Tutorial Proposals
Tutorial proposals should include a 2-page description of the tutorial, intended audience, a short CV, timetable, required equipment, references, and a track record of previous tutorials. The target length of tutorials is 2-4 hours. Previous examples include a tutorial on audio based media. However, feel free to suggest your own.

Extended Abstracts
Extended abstracts should be between 1-2 pages long and contain 500-800 words. They should describe the research problem, background, research questions, and the contribution to the conference. Extended abstracts will not be published within the ACM digital library.

Poster Presentations
Posters should be between 2-3 pages long and a poster should be presented during the conference. Attendees have the possibility to exhibit their posters on a A0 poster wall during the conference.

Submission Deadlines
30th June 2014 (extended) – Deadline for workshop proposals
30th June 2014 – Deadline for long papers (6-8 pages), short papers (3-4 pages), extended abstracts (1-2 pages), posters (1-2 pages) and demonstrations (2-3 pages)
30th Sept 2014 – Deadline for tutorial proposals
30th August 2014 – Notification of acceptance/rejection for papers, extended abstracts and posters. 20th Sept 2014 – Camera ready papers submissions and copyright forms
10th October 2014 – Conference registration & submission copyright forms
4th to 7th Nov 2014 – Academic MindTrek and MindTrek Business Conference

Organizing Committee
General Chair
Artur Lugmayr, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN
Program Chairs
Heljä Franssila, Tampere Univ. (UTA), FIN
Track chair: Social Media
Hannu Kärkkäinen, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN
Track chair: Ambient Media & Open Source
Moyen Mustaquim, Uppsala University, SE
Track chair: Media Business, Media Studies, and Media Management
Johanna Grüblbauer, St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (FH), AT
Track chair: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Pauliina Tuomi, University of Turku, FIN
Track chair: Digital Games
Janne Paavilainen, University of Tampere (UTA), FIN
Track chair: ICT & E-Government
Fatemeh Ahmadi Zeleti, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN
Track chair: Hybrid Media
Timo Nummenmaa, University of Tampere (UTA), FIN
Track chair: Information Systems & Management in Creativity Industry
Artur Lugmayr, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN
Panel Chair
Jari Jussila, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN

Demonstrations & Poster Chair
Paul Coulton, Lancaster University, UK
Workshop & Tutorial Chair
Paul Coulton, Lancaster University, UK
Conference Manager and Local Arrangements
Lester Lasrado, Tampere Univ. of Technology (TUT), FIN
Submission Guidelines

• Please follow the manuscript formatting guidelines for formatting all submissions. Please download the prescribed format from www.academicmindtrek.org
• Note that since the papers will be published by the ACM digital library all authors need to sign an ACM copyright form. (For further guidelines see: http://www.acm.org/pubs/copyright_form.html). The copyright form would be sent through an automated system for only accepted papers.
• Please submit your work here:  http://www.tut.fi/emmi/Submissions/2014mindtrek/openconf.php

Stay Informed
Questions:  https://listmail.tut.fi/mailman/admin/academic-mindtrek-organizers/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/AcademicMindTrekConference/
Email:  academic-mindtrek-chairs@listmail.tut.fi

Supported by
MindTrek Association, City of Tampere, Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Tampere University (UTA), Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Ambient Media Association (AMEA)

CFP: ARTECH 2015 – 7th International Conference on Digital Arts – Creating Digital e-Motions

ARTECH 2015
7th International Conference on Digital Arts – Creating Digital e-Motions.
Óbidos, Portugal, March 18-20, 2015
Call for Papers
ARTECH 2015 is the Seventh International Conference on Digital Arts, this time hosted by Universidade Aberta in the ancient village of Óbidos, Portugal. The goal of the conference is to promote the interest in the current digital culture and its intersection with art and technology as an important research field, but also as a common space for discussion and exchange of new experiences. Seeking to foster greater understanding about digital arts and culture across a wide spectrum of cultural, disciplinary, and professional practices, this edition of the conference also includes a strand concerned with mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets that have become widespread creation instruments. To this end, we cordially invite scholars, teachers, researchers, artists, computer professionals, and others who are working within the broadly defined areas of digital arts, culture and education to join us.
Main Topics:
Authors are invited to submit papers from all areas related to digital art, but also art installations, digital artefacts or media artworks, for review by an international committee. Both research and applications papers are of relevance to ARTECH 2015.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Art and Science Theory
• Audio-Visual and Multimedia Design
• Creativity Theory
• Design and Visualization
• Digital Storytelling
• Digital Technologies and Making
• e-Learning in Art and Media Studies
• Electronic Music
• Generative and Algorithmic Art & Design
• Immersive Art
• Interactive Systems for Artistic Applications
• Media Art History
• Mobile Multimedia
• Web Art and Digital Culture
• Digital Media, Apps and eBooks
• Digital Preservation
• Parametric Design
• Tangible and Gesture Interfaces
• Technology in Art Education
• Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
• 3D Environments

Important Dates:

• Full paper submission:  October 26, 2014
• Art installations, digital artefacts or media artworks’ proposals and short papers submission:  September 30, 2014
• Full and short papers notice of acceptance:  November 30, 2014
• Installations proposal notice of acceptance:  November 30, 2014
• Submission full paper final version:  January 31, 2015
• Early registration deadline:  January 31, 2015
• Pre-conference workshops:  March 18, 2015
• Conference:  March 19-20, 2015

Email:  artech2015@gmail.com

Website:  http://2015.artech-international.org/

CFP: Models of Culture for Intelligent Virtual Agents (MoCIVA)

Call for Papers: Models of Culture for Intelligent Virtual Agents (MoCIVA)
Call for short and long papers for first MoCIVA workshop co-located with Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) in Boston, MA – August 27th – 29th. Submissions due June 24th.
General page:  http://gaips.inesc-id.pt/mociva/
Link to submission details:  http://gaips.inesc-id.pt:8081/mociva/index.php/submission
Position papers: 2 pages
Short papers: 4-6 pages
Long papers: 10-12 pages
MoCIVA topics
MoCIVA aims to provide a forum for continued discussion and dissemination of results on several topics related to culture and virtual agents including:

• Culture-specific virtual agents and robots
• Agents for teaching cultures, or cross-cultural interaction
• Models of culture that could be or have been used in virtual agents
• Architectures that could be or have been used in culturally-aware virtual agents
• Cross-cultural and inter-cultural data collection methods that can inform agent models
• Culture-specific or cross-cultural human-agent interactions
• Evaluation methods and metrics for human-agent models of culture
• Simulating cultural differences

Applications of building models of culture that may affect task performance, e.g., managing cross-cultural interaction, teaching cultural models to, e.g., soldiers or international students, teaching cross-cultural interaction)
Important dates and contact information
June 24thth – Submissions due
July 10th – Notifications
August 1st – final papers due
August 26th – workshop
Email Birgit Endrass with questions about paper submissions:  birgit.endrass@uni-wuerzburg.de (Please put “IVA: Cultural Models” in subject heading.)
Committee:  http://gaips.inesc-id.pt:8081/mociva/index.php/committees
MoCIVA Motivations and Goals
Since humans use their own cultures as a frame of reference for producing and interpreting behavior and interaction, culture is an unavoidable part of human-human and human-intelligent virtual agent interaction. We would argue that there is no such thing as a virtual agent without a culture model, since culture is by its very definition the practices and behaviors that we take for granted, and therefore designers of agents most often incorporate their own cultural models. These unexamined design decisions may cause problems in the interaction in ways that lead us to reflect on how to design models of culture for human-agent interaction. In addition, an increasing number of the applications served by virtual agents require models of culture for intercultural interaction and/or for teaching intercultural interaction. The presentations and discussions in this workshop target the design decisions we make in designing, implementing, and deploying intelligent virtual agents that must operate in the real world where culture is an important part of interaction.
Papers are invited that target intelligent virtual agents that must function in specific cultural environments where culture affects task performance, how to manage cross-cultural human-agent interaction, applications that use virtual agents to teach cultural models to, e.g., soldiers or international students who must function in cultures different from their own, applications that use agents to teach cross-cultural interaction. Topics may include models of culture that can be or have been used in virtual agents, computational architectures that can be or have been used in culturally-aware virtual agents, cross-cultural and inter-cultural data collection methods that have or can inform agent models, applications that have or can be deployed for culture-specific or cross-culturally aware intelligent virtual agents, human-agent interactions, evaluation methods and metrics for human-agent models of culture.

CFP: Disability and Social Media

CFP: Disability and Social Media (Edited collection, abstracts due 15 July 2014)

Disability and Social Media
edited by Dr Katie Ellis & Dr Mike Kent Internet Studies, Curtin University

Social media is popularly seen as an important media for people with disability in terms of communication, exchange and activism. These sites
potentially increase both employment and leisure opportunities for one of the most traditionally isolated groups in society. However, the offline
inaccessible environment has, to a certain degree, been replicated online and particularly social networking sites. For example, despite recognized
benefits of social inclusion for people with disabilities, Scott Hollier notes the continuation of inaccessibility in social media in his report Sociability: Social Media for People with a Disability:

All of the popular social media tools remain inaccessible to some degree. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, blogging websites and the emerging Google+ all feature limited accessibly, denying many consumers with disabilities the opportunity to participate in social media. Fortunately, users have often found ways around the accessibility barriers such as alternative website portals, mobile apps, additional keyboard navigation shortcuts and online support groups. This is a rich source of expertise, and social media users with disability continue to find creative ways to access the most popular platforms. (Hollier 2012)

Although Hollier paints a dreary picture regarding accessibility in social media, his report holds much scope for optimism, as do we. Social media is
becoming an increasingly important part of our lives yet the impact on people with disabilities has gone largely unscrutinised. This collection
will explore the opportunities and challenges social media represents for the social inclusion of people with disabilities.

The book will be published as part of Ashgate's Interdisciplinary Disability Studies series

Some suggested topics (which are by no means exhaustive):

• Activism
• Communication
• Community creation
• Leisure/Entertainment/ Socialising
• Creating new types of representation
• Web/media literacy
• Mashups
• Education
• Social Network specific case studies 

We are particularly interested in chapter proposals that explore social networks popular outside the Anglosphere

Submission procedure:

Potential authors are invited to submit chapter abstract of no more than 500 words, including a title, 4 to 6 keywords, and a brief bio, by email to both Dr Mike Kent <m.kent@curtin.edu.au> and Dr Katie Ellis <katie.ellis@curtin.edu.au> by 15 July 2014. (Please indicate in your proposal if you wish to use any visual material, and how you have or will gain copyright clearance for visual material.) Authors will receive a response by 15 August 2014, with those provisionally accepted due as chapters of no more than 6000 words (including references) by 15 November 2015.



About the editors:

The editors are from the Department of Internet Studies at Curtin University. Dr Katie Ellis is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of
Internet Studies at Curtin University. Her research focuses on disability and the media extending across both representation and active possibilities
for social inclusion. Her books include Disability and New Media (2011 with Mike Kent), Disabling Diversity (2008), Disability, Ageing and Obesity:
Popular Media Identifications (2014; with Debbie Rodan & Pia Lebeck), Disability and the Media (2015; with Gerard Goggin), and Disability and
Popular Culture (2015). Dr Mike Kent's research focus is on people with disabilities and their use of, and access to, information technology and the
Internet. His other area of research interest is in higher education and particularly online education, as well as online social networking platforms. His edited collection An Education in Facebook? Higher Education and the World's Largest Social Network was released in May 2014 through Routledge.

CFP: Young People, Texts, Cultures

Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures invites essay submissions for a special issue addressing mobility in relation to youth texts and culture(s). We welcome essays that consider registers of race, class, gender, and disability. Essays should be between 6,000 and 9,000 words in length and prepared for blind peer-review.

Mobility invites us to think about bodies, identities, and agency from diverse disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Im/mobility can be many things: geographic, physical, ideological, imaginative, temporal, social. What are some of the ways that we might analyze this amorphous-in fact, mobile-topic in light of young people, their texts, and their cultures?

Submissions are requested by: 30 June 2015.

Topics may include:

• Dancing children
• Border crossings and home(land) security systems
• Movement as performance/choreography
• Narratives of upward/downward mobility
• Transformations through mobility/mobilizing   transformations
• Mobile audiences and audiences of mobility
• Movement as affect and affect as "being moved"
• Planes, trains, and automobiles
• Immigration and generations
• Ability and impairment
• Kinesthetics or kin-aesthetics
• Mobilizing youth polities
• Digital movement and mobile communication
• Play and playgrounds
• Containment and freedom of movement

Inquiries may be directed to Larissa Wodtke, Managing Editor: l.wodtke@uwinnipeg.ca

Further information about submission guidelines is available at: http://jeunessejournal.ca

CFP: GeoMedia 2015

GeoMedia 2015 " Spaces and Mobilities in Mediatized Worlds
An Interdisciplinary International Conference
Karlstad, SWEDEN, 5-8 May 2015
GeoMedia 2015 provides a genuinely interdisciplinary arena for research carried out at the crossroads of Geography, Media and Film Studies. The aim of the conference is to map out the current terrain of communication geographical research, pinpointing its main areas of debate and assessing the prospects of communication geography as a more formalized academic field.   GeoMedia 2015 welcomes scholars of all disciplines who address questions pertaining to the space-mobility-media-communication nexus and want to take part in current epistemological discussions regarding communication geography and its future(s).
Confirmed keynote speakers:   

• Mustafa Dikec – Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
• Mimi Sheller – Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA
• John Tomlinson – Nottingham Trent University, UK 

Confirmed plenary panel:

• Paul C. Adams (chair) – University of Texas at Austin, USA
• Julie Cupples – University of Edinburgh, UK 
• Dana Diminescu – Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, France
• Hille Koskela – University of Turku, Finland

Confirmed films & directors:    

• “The Forgotten Space” – Noël Burch (director)
• “Cosmopolitanism” – Erik Gandini (director) 

 Abstract submissions:
GeoMedia 2015 welcomes proposals for individual papers as well as thematic panels in English through www.geomedia.se
Individual paper proposals: The author submits an abstract of 200-250 words. Accepted papers are grouped by the organizers into sessions of 5 papers according to thematic area.
Thematic panel proposals: The chair of the panel submits a proposal consisting of 4-5 individual paper abstracts (200-250 words) along with a general panel presentation of 200-250 words.
Suggested themes include, but are not limited to:

• Communication geographies
• Mobilities and locative media
• Power geometries of/in motion
• “Newsworthy” spaces
• Mobilities, flows and new media
• Material geographies of media
• Policy mobilities and power
• Media ecologies
• Lifestyle and tourism mobilities
• Pervasive media
• Cinematic geographies
• Mobility and governance
• New media and the productions of place/space
• Urban and rural media spaces
• Geographies of media and culture industries
• Art and event spaces

We plan to put together an anthology (not a proceedings) of selected papers and publish it with an established international scholarly press. Information will be provided to conference participants.
Conference Timeline

• August 16: Submission system opens
• October 10 2014: Deadline for thematic panel proposals
• December 1 2014: Deadline for individual paper proposals
• December 15: Registration opens
• January 16 2015: Notes of acceptance
• March 31 2015: Last day of registration

Conference website:
Information about the registration, conference program, venue, social events and practical arrangements, will be posted continuously at the conference website: www.geomedia.se
 Contact: you can reach us at info@geomedia.se
Organizers and venue:
GeoMedia 2015 is hosted by the Department of Geography, Media and Communication at Karlstad University, Sweden.
Mekonnen Tesfahuney, Conference General
Linda Ryan Bengtsson, GeoMedia Co-ordinator

André Jansson, Director of GeoMedia

CFP: UK Museums On The Web conference (UKMW14): Museums Beyond the Web

Submission deadline: June 30, 2014
The Museums Computer Group will be holding our annual UKMW conference at the Natural History Museum on Friday November 7 2014. This year our theme is ‘Museums Beyond the Web’.
What does ‘the web’ mean to those of us working with digital and museums today? Increasingly, our visitors’ online experiences are moving away from the humble browser (though perhaps email will always be with us). From simple mobile apps and games to the internet of things and wearable technology, new forms are displacing the World Wide Web as our primary experience of being connected to the internet.
While new technologies offer ever-more different ways of being digital, digital disciplines are advancing rapidly. Is ‘experience’ the new core of digital for visitors? Is ‘service design’ a better way of looking at what we do than ‘web design’ or even ‘user experience’? And in our organisations, are all departments ‘digital departments’ now?
At the same time, many of the advances in museums technology in recent years, like Linked Open Data, are crucially dependent on an open and interoperable World Wide Web. Museums across the globe recently raised their voices to protest against threats to net neutrality: we know that the value of cultural heritage online can only thrive on an equal and open internet. What web freedoms do we need to preserve to benefit museums and our audiences?
UKMW14: Museums Beyond the Web will tackle these issues and more. Digital museum professionals and the museum-curious alike will find this day conference a useful, interesting and enriching experience.
Don’t miss tickets going on sale: sign up for occasional event notices from our low-traffic MCG Events list to make sure you’re one of the first to know when tickets go on sale: http://eepurl.com/r3Y6H
The Call for Papers for UKMW14 is now open at http://bit.ly/UKMW14CfP
Like the web, the shape of our theme may experience rapid change, as we’re hoping for a range of creative responses from within and without the cultural heritage sector. If you have any questions or can’t view the proposal form at http://bit.ly/UKMW14CfP then please email contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk.
If you have suggestions for keynote speakers, or would like to help out on our Programme Committee, please drop us a line!
Best regards,
Mia Ridge and Danny Birchall
UKMW14 Programme Committee Co-Chairs
About The Museums Computer Group: Connecting, supporting, inspiring museum technology professionals
The Museums Computer Group (MCG) is a UK-based independent group for museum, gallery, archive and higher education professionals who work with museum technology and digital heritage. Our members include technologists, educators, academics, marketing people and more working in or around museums and digital technologies, from backend collections systems to the latest social media.

We provide a forum for discussion between technology, marketing, education, outreach, new media, documentation, collections management or traditional IT departments. We connect, support and inspire our members through annual events at museums and other venues throughout the UK, a mailing list and other channels for debate and practical help.