Seventh Annual Minitrack on Persistent Conversation
Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS 39)
Hyatt Regency, Kauai, Hawaii
January 4-7, 2006

=== AT A GLANCE ===

= Summary of Topic =
Persistent conversations occur via instant messaging, chat, email, blogs, bulletin boards, MOOs, graphical VR environments, document annotation systems, text messaging on mobile phones, etc. Such forms of conversation play a crucial role in domains such as online communities, the sharing and management of knowledge, and the support of e-commerce, e-learning and other network mediated interactions. The
persistence of digitally mediated conversation affords new uses (e.g. searching, replaying, restructuring) and raises new problems. This multi-disciplinary minitrack seeks contributions from researchers and designers that improve our ability to understand, analyze, and/or design persistent conversation systems.

= Who =
Researchers and designers from fields such as anthropology, computer-mediated communication, HCI, interaction design, linguistics, management, psychology, rhetoric, sociology, and so forth.

= Chairs =
Thomas Erickson, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center (snowfall@acm.org)
Susan Herring, School of Library and Information Science,
Indiana University (herring@indiana.edu)

= Important Dates* =
Abstract submission:**    Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Abstract feedback:        Thursday, March 31, 2005
Paper submission:         Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Accept/Reject notice:     Monday, August 15, 2005
Final papers due:         Thursday, September 15, 2005
One author must register: Thursday, September 15, 2005

  *  For other dates. such as end of early registration and hotel deadlines see the official HICSS conference site
**  Abstracts are optional but strongly recommended; to submit a paper without an abstract, please contact the chairs

= For More Information =
* This call for participation: http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS39pc.html
* History (papers and participants in previous minitracks):
         http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC_History.html
* About the minitrack, contact: snowfall@acm.org, herring@indiana.edu
* About the HICSS conference, see:
         http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/Hicss39/apahome39.htm

=== DETAILS ===

= About the Minitrack =
This interdisciplinary minitrack and workshop brings designers and researchers together to explore persistent conversation, the transposition of ordinarily ephemeral conversation into the potentially persistent digital medium. The phenomena of interest include human-to-human interactions carried out using chat, instant
messaging, text messaging, email, web logs, mailing lists, news groups, bulletin board systems, multi-authored Web documents, structured conversation systems, textual and graphical virtual worlds, etc. Computer-mediated conversations blend characteristics of oral conversation with those of written text: they may be synchronous
or asynchronous; their audience may be small or vast; they may be highly structured or almost amorphous; etc. The persistence of such conversations gives them the potential to be searched, browsed, replayed, annotated, visualized, restructured, and recontextualized, thus opening the door to a variety of new uses and practices.

The particular aim of the minitrack and workshop is to bring together researchers who analyze existing computer-mediated conversational practices and sites, with designers who propose, implement, or deploy
new types of conversational systems. By bringing together participants from such diverse areas as anthropology, computer-mediated communication, HCI, interaction design, linguistics, management, psychology, rhetoric, sociology, and the like, we hope that the work of each may inform the others, suggesting new questions, methods, perspectives, and design approaches.

= About Paper Topics =
We are seeking papers that address one or both of the following two general areas:
* Understanding Practice. The burgeoning popularity of the internet (and intranets) provides an opportunity to study and characterize new forms of conversational practice. Questions of interest range from how various features of conversations (e.g., turn-taking, topic organization, expression of paralinguistic information) have adapted in response to the digital medium, to new roles played by persistent conversation in domains such as education, business, and entertainment.
*Design. Digital systems do not currently support conversation well:  it is difficult to converse with grace, clarity, depth and coherence over networks. But this need not remain the case. Toward this end, we welcome analyses of existing systems as well as designs for new systems which better support conversation. Also of interest are inquiries into how participants design their own conversations within the digital medium -- that is, how they make use of system features to create, structure, and regulate their discourse.

Examples of appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:
* Turn-taking, threading and other structural features of CMC
* The dynamics of large scale conversation systems (e.g. USENET)
* Methods for summarizing or visualizing conversation archives
* Studies of virtual communities or other sites of digital conversation
* The roles of mediated conversation in knowledge management
* Studies of the use of instant messaging in large organizations
* Novel designs for computer-mediated conversation systems
* Analyses of or designs for distance learning systems
For other examples see the list of previous years' papers:
http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS_PC_History.html

= The Workshop =
For the past six meetings the minitrack has been preceded by a half-day workshop; we hope this will be continued for 2006, but will not know for sure until March or April. See the online version of this call for more details:
http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/HICSS39pc.html

= Instructions for Abstract Submission =
Submit a 250 word abstract of your proposed paper via email to the chairs: Tom Erickson <snowfall@acm.org>, Susan Herring <herring@indiana.edu> by the deadline noted above.

= Instructions for Paper Submission =
* HICSS papers must contain original material not previously published, or currently submitted elsewhere. All papers will be submitted in double column publication format and limited to 10 pages including diagrams and references. Papers undergo a double-blind review.
* Do not submit the manuscript to more than one Minitrack Chair. If unsure which Minitrack is appropriate, submit the abstract to the Track Chair for guidance.
* Submit your full paper according to the instructions found on the HICSS web site: http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/Hicss39/apahome39.htm

=== END, HICSS PERSISTENT CONVERSATION CFP ===

------------------------------------------
Tom Erickson and Susan Herring (snowfall@acm.org, herring@indiana.edu)
Chairs, HICSS 39 Minitrack and Workshop on Persistent Conversation
Digitial Media: Content and Communication Track
Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS 39)
http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/hicsspc39.html

Posted by prolurkr at February 23, 2005 09:33 PM

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