huridocs-tech Conference on public sphere in cyberspace

                         Shaping the Network Society
                     
                The Future of the Public Sphere in Cyberspace

                                   DIAC-00

  A Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing (DIAC) Symposium

     Sponsored by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility


                       First Call for Abstracts / Papers


                            May 20 - May 23, 2000

                           Seattle, Washington, USA
    _________________________________________________________________

Cyberspace may become the dominant medium through which people create
and share information and ideas. How their conversations about the
environment, culture, leisure, and political decisions, are conducted
and how they are resolved are likely to have major social implications
in the future. What directions and implications does cyberspace foretell
for community, democracy, education and culture? Addressing those
questions may be among the most urgent tasks facing humankind today.

The objective of DIAC-00 is to integrate many perspectives,
conversations, and people from around the world on the topic of public
space in cyberspace: What is it? What should it be? What would we do
with it? What can we do about it?

While DIAC-00 will present "best practices" and other lessons learned
"from the field" there is an urgent need for theoretical work (or
"condensed practice") as well. For that reason, DIAC-00 is strongly
encouraging reflective work on strategic and policy levels. There is
enormous energy found at the grassroots level and it is growing. The big
problem today is framing the idea of public space in cyberspace in a way
that engages intellectuals, decision-makers, artists, and citizens. This
can only be done by combining "best practice" stories with strong
provocative conceptualizations of what is happening in our world and how
public cyberspace can play a role. We need theories, concepts that can
help us discuss, reflect, and take action on these critical matters. As
an integral part of the DIAC-00 conference social scientists, engineers,
computer scientists, artists, journalists, and other members of the
research community will contribute their thinking on these pressing
issues:

      * Community Informatics
      * Civic Knowledge, Civic Infrastructure
      * New Tools, Applications, Services, and Institutions
      * Theoretical Frameworks
      * Methodological Frameworks
      * Critical Theory
      * Social Economy of the Internet
      * Computers, Work, and Cyberspace
      * New -- and Retooled -- Media
      * Participatory and Community-Centered Design
      * Community Initiatives
      * Public Access and Community Networks
      * Practitioner and Researcher Co-Learning
      * Bridging the Digital Divide
      * Cyberspace Policy -- Social Policy -- Cultural Policy
      * Computer-Supported Community Work
      * Localism and Globalism
      * International Perspectives and Partnerships
      * Social Movements and Collaborations

DIAC-00 will be a multifaceted event. This call for abstracts / papers
addresses the research or academic component of the symposium. There are
other opportunities for participation within this framework. The
guidelines for workshop proposals will be released soon.

DIAC-00 will be the seventh symposium sponsored by Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility in the "Directions and
Implications of Advanced Computing" series. DIAC-00 is intended to
broaden the discussion and awareness about the future of cyberspace both
in terms of topics and in terms of participation. It is also our intent
to provide visibility to topics and perspectives that are often
neglected by the media.

Each extended abstract should contain a description and outline of the
work, supporting evidence and data, and references. Abstracts and papers
should be written in English. All extended abstracts should be submitted
(in plain text only!) electronically to Peter Day
(p.day@btinternet.com). Abstracts should be fewer than 2,000 words.
Authors should remember that they will be addressing non-academics as
well as academics at this conference and avoid jargon whenever possible.
Citations should follow the Harvard Citation guidelines.

Academic Program Committee: Phil Agre (US), Amy Bruckman (US), Natasha
Bulashova (Russia), Steve Cisler (US), Greg Cole (US), Peter Day
(co-chair; UK), Fiorella de Cindio (Italy), Susana Finquelievich
(Argentina), Michael Gurstein (Canada), Toru Ishida (Japan), Peter
Mambrey (Germany), Kate ODubhchair (UK), Volkmar Pipek (Germany), Jenny
Preece (US), Lodis Rhodes (US), Douglas Schuler (co-chair; US), Lisa
Servon (US), Erik Stolterman (Sweden), Peter van den Besselaar
(Netherlands), Murali Venkatesh (US), Ken Young (Australia).

Important Dates: February 15, 2000 extended abstracts due; March 15,
2000 feedback given to authors; May 1, 2000 revised abstracts due. May
20 - May 23, 2000 DIAC-00. The final papers, ready for book / journal,
will be due sometime in summer 2000. We are planning to publish all
submitted abstracts on our web site. We are planning to publish accepted
papers in a book or journal. The academic program will be thoroughly
integrated with the rest of DIAC-00.

We are pleased to be a member of the Global 2000 Virtual Community
Coalition. The Global 2000 Virtual Community Coalition is a loosely
affiliated group of people, organizations, and events all over the world
who are working together in the year 2000 to help promote democratic use
of communication technology and discourage social exclusion due to
inequitable access to communication.

DIAC-00 is sponsored by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
and co-sponsored by Friends and Partners. Please contact us if your
organization would like to become a co-sponsor or endorser.  We'd like
to thank the Morino Foundation for their support.

For more information about the symposium, please see the web site
(http://www.scn.org/cpsr/diac-00) or contact conference organizer Doug
Schuler, douglas@cpsr.org, 206.634.0752.







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