[Nettime-bold] Shaping the Network Society -- call for submissions

[Doug Schuler <douglas@scn.org>]

-------> first CALL FOR DIAC-02 SUBMISSIONS

/// Please forward to interested people, lists, newsgroups. Thank you!


Shaping the Network Society: 
    Patterns for Participation, Action, and Change
http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/

May 16-19, 2002
   Seattle, Washington, USA


Tomorrow's information and communication infrastructure is being 
shaped today.

      But by whom and to what ends?

Researchers, community workers, social activists, educators and 
students, journalists, artists, policymakers, and citizens are all 
concerned about the shape that this new infrastructure will take.

   Will it meet the needs of all people?
   Will it help the citizenry address current and future issues?
   Will it promote democracy, social justice, sustainability? 

   Will the appropriate research be conducted?
   Will equitable policies be enacted?


Symposium Aims

A "public sphere" where people learn about, discuss, and deliberate 
on important issues, such as increasing economic disparity, 
militarization, environmental degradation, racism or sexism, is 
critical to our future. 

Clearly, information and communication technology--and the uses to 
which it is put--is central to any effort that helps empower people to 
effectively look at and resolve our collective concerns.

At the same time, giant media conglomerates and computer companies are 
rapidly increasing their control of the information and communication 
infrastructure upon which this public sphere depends.  Governments, 
too, are often part of this problem;  instead of promoting access and 
two-way access to this infrastructure, they actively or passively 
discourage civic sector uses.

Civil society is responding in a million ways.  The opportunities and 
challenges offered by a global "network society" are too great to be 
ignored.

The Shaping the Network Society symposium is designed to aid in these 
efforts by providing a forum and a platform for these critical issues. 
And, through the use of "patterns," we hope that this conference will 
help inject organization, motivation, and inspiration into the 
evolution of an information and communication infrastructure that 
truly meets today's -- and tomorrow's -- urgent needs.

Please join us in Seattle (and beyond) in May 2002 for this exciting 
and important event!

DIAC-02

This event will be the eighth biannual Directions and Implications of 
Advanced Computing (DIAC) symposium.  A variety of events are planned 
ranging from invited speakers, panel discussions, and pattern 
presentations to numerous opportunities for informal working sessions 
-- both planned and spontaneous -- on various topics.  Also, as with 
previous DIAC symposia, we will do our best to provide a few 
surprises ...

Pattern Orientation 

To promote bridge-building, we are soliciting "patterns," instead of 
abstracts, that will be developed into full papers for this symposium. 
A "pattern" is a careful description of a solution or suggestion for 
remedying an identified problem in a given context that can be used 
to help develop and harness communication and information technology 
in ways that affirm human values.

The information contained in patterns is similar to that in 
traditional abstracts or papers, but it is arranged in a common 
structure in order to inspire scholars and practitioners to think 
about their work in terms of social implications and actual social 
engagement; build networks that include research, practice, and 
advocacy; and facilitate the integration of all submitted patterns 
into a coherent network of patterns, or "pattern language," that will 
form a useful and compelling knowledge structure which can help spur 
additional research, solutions, and activism. As a result, individual 
patterns are exciting because each is, in essence, a small theory 
about some part of the communication and information universe.  In 
addition, since the individual patterns will be stored in an online 
database, the overall strategy opens myriad possibilities that will 
allow us as a community to synthesize the patterns into a collectively 
constructed body that creates new opportunities for collaboration and 
deliberation.

We believe that the "pattern" orientation will be beneficial and 
thought-provoking for all participants.  If you are tempted to submit 
a pattern, we encourage you to do so.  Although this approach may 
require different thinking, we believe that it will be worth the 
effort.

Patterns can be submitted for consideration for presentation at the 
Shaping the Network Society conference, or simply to be published on 
the web site and as a contribution to the knowledge structure.


Developing and Submitting Patterns 

     Patterns are SOLUTIONS to PROBLEMS in a given CONTEXT.

     Patterns can be observable actions, empirical findings, 
     hypotheses, theories, social or media critiques, case studies, 
     or "best practices";  indeed, any template or crystallized or 
     distilled knowledge in some area that will help people in the 
     field--researchers, practitioners, journalists, policymakers, 
     artists, citizens.

     Patterns can address problems, such as the digital divide, that 
     arise in a range of contexts--social, cultural, educational, 
     economic, community, political, and/or technological.

     Patterns exist at all levels; they can be "global" as well as 
       "local," theoretical as well as practical.

     Patterns are the springboard for discussion, research, and 
        activism.


The primary elements needed to develop a pattern for submission are:

- The name or TITLE of the pattern (brief, one-ten words).
- A succinct statement of the essence of the PROBLEM in one or two 
  sentences.
- A DISCUSSION section (300-600 words) that describes the background 
  of the problem, evidence for its proposed solution, and the range of 
  ways that the solution can be applied.
- The SOLUTION to the problem is presented in a summary form that 
  describes the field of physical and social relationships which are 
  required to solve the stated problem, in the stated context.
- An optional descriptive image can be used to provide a visual 
  representation of your pattern and/or an optional summary image can 
  show a pictorial representation (diagram) of the solution.  Although 
  these IMAGES are an optional element, we encourage you to include 
  them to supply useful information that is difficult to provide in 
  words and to make your pattern page more attractive and consistent 
  with other patterns.

Complete details on pattern submission, including example patterns, 
are available for further clarification at the symposium web site: 
http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/

The preferred way to submit patterns is through the pattern intake 
site, which can be accessed from the symposium site or directly at: 
http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/pattern.cgi.  If you cannot 
access the intake site, please send your pattern as email text (no 
attachments) to docrod99@hotmail.com.  Please consult the help page,
http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/patterns/help.html, for 
guidance on an e-mail submission. 


Important Dates 

  December 1, 2001  Deadline for pattern submission for conference
                      consideration
  January 15, 2002  Feedback to conference pattern submitters 
                      (accept/reject decision)
  March 15, 2002    Full papers (based on accepted patterns) due
  April 15, 2002    Last day to submit patterns for database inclusion 
                      only
  May 16-19, 2002   Shaping the Network Society Symposium 


Sponsors 

Public Sphere Project of Computer Professionals for 
  Social Responsibility (CPSR) 

National Communication Association Task Force on the Digital Divide


Program committee 

Abdul Alkalimet (US), Alain Ambrosi (Canada), Ann Bishop (US), 
Kwasi Boakye-Akyeampong (Ghana), Rod Carveth (US), Andrew Clement 
(Canada), Fiorella de Cindio (Italy), Peter Day (UK), Susana 
Finquelievich (Argentina), Mike Gurstein (Canada), Harry Hochheiser 
(US), Toru Ishida (Japan), Susan Kretchmer (US), Brian Loader (UK), 
Geert Lovink (Netherlands, Australia), Richard Lowenberg (US), Peter 
Mambrey (Germany), Peter Miller (US), Kenneth Pigg (US), Scott 
Robinson (Mexico), Partha Pratim Sarker (Bangladesh), Doug Schuler 
(US), David Silver (US), Sergei Stafeev (Russia), Erik Stolterman 
(Sweden) and Peter Van den Besselaar (Netherlands).

Other invaluable assistance 

Noriko Okazaki (graphics), Robin Oppenheimer (advisor), Scott Rose 
(web technology).

    


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