3rd International Conference on Communities and Technologies
hosted by
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan U.S.A.
June 28-30, 2007

Conference Website: http://ebusiness.tc.msu.edu/cct2007/

Following the success of two prior conferences, we cordially invite submissions to the 3rd International Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T 2007), hosted by Michigan State University. This biennial meeting serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating research on the complex connections between communities - both physical and virtual - and information and communication technologies.

C&T 2007 welcomes contributions from researchers in many fields, given the multidisciplinary and collaborative nature of inquiries into the interaction between community and technology. Past meetings have involved researchers working in such areas as computer supported cooperative work, computer supported collaborative learning, artificial intelligence, information retrieval, human computer interaction, information systems, community informatics, knowledge management, and Internet studies; across such fields as anthropology, communication, computer science, economics, geography, information studies, information systems, management science, political science, psychology, sociology, and telecommunication. The conference program includes competitively selected, peer-reviewed papers, as well as workshops, tutorials, and a small number of invited speakers.

Important Dates:

November 13, 2006: Paper submission deadline

December 4, 2006: Deadline for submission of workshop proposals

Conference Themes:

There are many definitions of community. We focus on the notion of communities as social entities comprised of actors who share something in common: this common element may be geography, needs, interests, practices, organizations, or other bases for social connection. Communities are considered to be a basic unit of social experience. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can interact with communities in many complex ways. For example, ICTs can support community formation and development by facilitating communication and coordination among members. Conversely, the lack of attention to the surrounding community context may inhibit the design and effective use of ICT innovations. Hence, new research into the creation, use, and evaluation of ICTs aimed at community support is appearing at an increasing rate. New phenomena such as blogs, podcasting, smart mobs, and the popularity of social network software illustrate some of the new areas for research into the powerful and changing connections between community and technology. Empirical, conceptual, and design contributions are invited, involving a range of methodologies and approaches. These might include application designs, innovative frameworks, case studies, ethnographies, experiments, survey research, network analyses or economic studies.

Topics appropriate for submission to this conference are manifold. Examples of some of the vibrant areas of communities and technology research include, but are not limited to:

• virtual community formation and development
• communities of interest and practice, knowledge sharing and organizational learning
• communities and innovation
• community informatics
• technical support for communities
• innovative applications of communityware
• ad hoc communities and ICTs
• innovations in community technology design
• system platforms for e-community research
• design methods for communityware
• ICTs and geographical business communities (e.g. clusters and/or regional development)
• ICTs and virtual business communities
• community e-commerce business models
• interactions between online and offline communities
• social capital, communities, and technology
• communities and e-government
• ethnographic and case studies of virtual communities
• trust, privacy and security issues in virtual communities
• communities, technology and social movements
• interaction in large scale online communities
• persistent conversation in technology-facilitated communities
• supporting collaboration in local and distributed communities
• economics of technology-facilitated communities
• inter-organizational communities and technology
• communities, technology, learning and education

Submitting Papers and Workshop Proposals

Completed and original research papers of not more 20 pages must be submitted electronically to the conference website, and will undergo a peer review process. More information is available at the conference web site.

We also invite the submission of proposals for workshops, which will be held on Thursday, June 28, 2007, the first day of the conference. Workshops can be either half or full day in length and built around specific themes relevant to the conference. Workshop proposals should be 4 pages in length, and should define the theme(s) of the workshop, the main activities and goals, the background and contact information of the organizer(s), the maximum number of participants in the workshop, the means of soliciting participants, and the method of selecting participants. Proposals should also include a brief summary of no more than 150 words suitable for describing the workshop in the conference program.

Proceedings

The Communities and Technologies 2007 Proceedings will be published by Springer, and will be available both as a bound volume and online for global digital access.

Conference Organizers and Contact Information

The 2007 meeting is being co-organized by Charles Steinfield and Brian Pentland of Michigan State University, Mark Ackerman of the University of Michigan, and Noshir Contractor of the University of Illinois. Questions regarding C&T 2007 should be sent to the conference email address, which is cct2007@msu.edu.

Posted by prolurkr at July 22, 2006 10:02 AM

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