CFP: Enhancing Lives through Information and Technology

Call for Papers and Participation

Enhancing Lives through Information and Technology - A Combined SIG-SI and SIG-USE Full-Day Workshop

The Social Informatics of Work and Play (SIG-SI): Morning
Information Behavior in Workplaces (SIG-USE): Afternoon

ASIS&T Annual Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark
October 15, 2016

Organizers
Katriina Byström, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Katriina.Bystrom@hioa.no
Pnina Fichman, Indiana University, Bloomington, fichman@indiana.edu
Luanne Freund, University of British Columbia, Luanne.Freund@ubc.ca
Howard Rosenbaum, Indiana University, Bloomington, hrosenba@indiana.edu

Join us at ASIS&T in Copenhagen for a full-day pre-conference workshop to explore the ways in which our uses of information and technologies improve our work and social lives. Two vital and dynamic SIGs are joining forces for a workshop that will provide two interesting and complementary perspectives in the conference theme.

In the morning session, SIG-SI will bring a perspective that focuses on the social aspects of information and communication technologies (ICT) in work and play across all areas of ASIS&T. In the afternoon session, SIG-USE will focus on information related activities from different research perspectives and explores the significance of information seeking and use on our lives.

Submissions may include empirical, critical, conceptual and theoretical papers and posters, as well as richly described practice cases and demonstrations. The combined workshop will allow networking between members of both SIGs during the day.

MORNING: THE SOCIAL INFORMATICS OF WORK AND PLAY (SIG SI)
Co-sponsored by the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics

This year’s conference theme is “creating knowledge, enhancing lives through information & technology.” This is a particularly apposite theme for SIG-SI, because the social impacts of ICT and the complex relations among people, technologies, and the contexts of ICT design, implementation, and use have long been core concerns of social informatics. The SIG-SI morning session, our 12th annual gathering at ASIS&T annual meetings, will bring a critical perspective that focuses on the social aspects of ICT that cuts across all areas of ASIS&T This year, we are particularly interested in papers that investigate the social informatics of work and play.

We define “social” broadly to include critical and historical approaches as well as contemporary social analysis. We also define “technology” broadly to include traditional technologies  (e.g., paper, books, etc.), state-of-the-art computer systems, and mobile and pervasive devices. Submissions may include papers and posters that explore the ways in which people’s uses of ICT affect their practices and behaviors while at work, play, and engaged in their social lives.

We are particularly interested in work that assumes a critical stance towards the Symposium’s theme, but are also soliciting research on other related social informatics topics. We encourage all scholars interested in social aspects of ICT (broadly defined) to share their research and research in progress by submitting an extended abstract of their work and attending the symposium. Some of the questions we ask include:

• What are the impacts of ICT on people’s practices and behaviors while at work, play, and engaged in their social lives?
• What are some of the ways our work and play practices shape the design and development of ICT?
• What are the ways ICT positively and negatively impact organizations, work, play, and social life?
• What kinds of theoretical and methodological frameworks are best suited for studying the mutual shaping of ICT and practices and behaviors while at work and play?

The schedule for the morning session of the symposium will involve the presentations of papers, a panel of distinguished scholars, and the best social informatics paper awards for 2015. We expect an engaging discussion with lively interactions with the audience.

SIG-SI symposium chairs

Pnina Fichman, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
Howard Rosenbaum, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
Eric Meyer, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford, UK
Adam Worrall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

AFTERNOON: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR IN WORKPLACES (SIG-USE)

This year’s SIG USE symposium focuses on information issues at work. It acknowledges social, individual and technological perspectives on the roles and flows that information takes as part of physical and digital work. The broad approach relates to the conference theme with a focus on information behavior (IB) or on information practices (IP) in connection to workplaces.

Earlier generations were accustomed to stable and localized work; now work activities and contexts have and are radically changing. During their work life, people may experience several career changes, are expected to learn new skills and adapt to new ideas as well as manage the increasingly fluid boundaries between work and leisure. Moreover, much of information and data are internetworked and accessible simultaneously by multiple mobile devices supporting networked communities anyplace, anywhere, anytime. This challenges both the creation and consumption of information used for work – or at work; it also affects how, when and where people work, as well as their productivity, collegiality and innovativeness.

Despite, or perhaps due to, the advances in technology, today’s workplaces remain challenged by how to create, discover, share, value and enhance information and knowledge at and for work; and, how to design and manage the systems that support these functions, which are so critical to organizationally effective and individually rewarding work. The issues are many, from the consequences of new devices that are stretching the ways that an organization works, to the efficacy dynamics (stress, motivation, collaboration, productivity, age, etc.) and to the new skills and expertise required to work in such changing and changeable environments. Information is indispensable in many, if not all, workplace activities; as a resource for getting work done as well as for learning, managing change, developing and maintaining processes and creating professional networks.

Specific issues to be addressed depend on the interest of the participants and the issues they bring into the workshop. Welcome topics include:

• Critical cultural information behavior – how do we infuse our workplaces and practices with diversity and social justice sensibilities?
• Collaborative IB; virtual team
• Digital workplaces, peopleless offices & officeless people - what happens when the physical workplace dissolves?
• Everyday Life Information (in the workplace)
• Frameworks for understanding IB/IP in work settings
• IB/IP and workplace or information systems design
• Organizational behaviour research - what can we learn from this field of research that is relevant to IB/IP?
• Organizational information genres
• Personal Information Management (in the workplace)
• The blurring of lines between personal and professional in digital information use in the workplace
• The impact of mobile devices on IB/IP in the workplace
• Workplace culture, diversity and inclusion - how these shape and are shaped by information behaviour (IB)/information practices (IP)?
• and any other work-related informational topics

We aim to an interactive workshop to enable the fullest exchange of ideas amongst attendees. For this reason, we encourage participants to submit; even if participation without a paper/poster is an eligible option. The workshop features a keynote by Professor Hazel Hall (preliminarily confirmed), presentation of selected papers, a joint poster session between the SIGs, and roundtable discussions based on short papers and posters by participants.

Documentation: short papers and posters are shared digitally among the participants. Roundtable discussions are documented by a designated person in each group and collated by symposium chairs to a short summary that is made available for the participants afterwards.

SIG-USE symposium chairs

David Allen, Leeds University, UK
Katriina Byström, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway
Nicole A. Cooke, The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
Luanne Freund, University of British Columbia, Canada

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

SI - opening keynote: 8.30-9.00
Paper presentations: 9.00-10.30
Break 10.30-10.45
Panel: 10.45-11.45
SIG SI paper awards: 11.45-12.15
SI- closing discussion and remarks: 12.15-12.45

USE- opening and opening keynote: 13.45-14.45
Short Paper Session: 14.45-15.45
Break 15.45-16.00
Roundtable discussion based on papers & posters: 16.00-17.30
SIG USE Awards 17.30-17.45
USE - closing remarks: 17.45-18.00

CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS FOR BOTH SIGS

Submit a short paper (2000 words) or poster (500 words) by August 19, 2016.

SIG-SI: Please send your submission as a PDF file to: hrosenba@indiana.edu

SIG-USE: Please, send your submission as a PDF-file to: katriina.bystrom@hioa.no<mailto:katriina.bystrom@hioa.no>

Acceptance announcements made by August 31, 2016 in time for conference early registration (ends Sept 2, 2016).

FEES

Members – SIG-SI session: $100 - $120 after Sept. 2, 2016
Members – SIG-USE session: $100 - $120 after September September 2, 2016
Members – attending both SIG-SI and SIG-USE sessions: $180 - $200 after Sept. 2, 2016

Non-members  - SIG-SI Session: $120 - $140, after September 2, 2016
Non-members  - SIG-USE Session: $120 - $140, after September 2, 2016
Non-members – attending both SIG-SI and SIG-USE sessions: $230 - $250 after Sept. 2, 2016