HICSS-42
CALL FOR PAPERS
Forty-second Annual Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences
Minitrack on Classification of Digital Documents
January 5-8, 2009
Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort
Waikoloa, Big Island, Hawai’i
Additional details may be found on HICSS primary web site: http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu
We invite papers for a Minitrack on Classification of Digital Documents. Classification of physical documents suffers from the limitation that physical objects can be in only one place at one time. In a digital environment this limitation is eliminated, and a document can be displayed as a member of an endless array of classes. Even so, the basic problem of which classes remains as well as the non-trivial issues of how these classes are to be identified, defined and implemented.
Traditional approaches to classification continue to guide practice in many areas. Typically, such classifications draw their warrant from experts who develop standardized terminology, notations, and rules for application. The Web has now allowed everyone to be a classifier, indexer and developer of schemes. Classifications seem to grow unfettered in the digital environment as exemplified in social tagging sites and folksonomies as well as in pragmatic and opportunistic classifications such as those on eBay.com, and many shopping sites. These new emergent classifications, though, are not entirely random, and show evidence of deep patterns and regularities. The discovery of the fundamental principles underlying emergent and collaborative classifications is an exciting and important area for research.
As well, we see great development in the field of automatic classification. Previously, many researchers firmly believed that only a human could create a “meaningful” classification. Proponents of automatic classification point out, however, that classifications designed to be understood by humans are often inconsistent, expensive to build and maintain, rigid and often biased, slow-moving, and do not take advantage of patterns that emerge only when viewed from the perspective of many thousands of instances—too many for the human brain to manipulate.
The two fields of semantic and automatic classification have slowly come closer, and primarily through the integration of both kinds of perspectives in designing efficient but conceptually robust systems. Thus, we see the development of various intellectual tools such as taxonomies and ontologies, which focus not only on purely mechanical clustering, but also on the meaningful relationships between and among the clusters. Conversely, the ability to manipulate and automatically explore very large corpora has provided a forum for applying and refining those same intellectual tools. That is, we see a convergence of approaches, each informing the other.
Topics of the minitrack will address the social, organizational and technical aspects of classification for digital media. These include (but are not limited to):
The role of classification of digital documents in knowledge-management and information-management systems in organizational and societal contexts
Genre of digital documents viewed from a classification perspective;
The relationship of traditional approaches to classification of non-digital documents to the classification of digital documents.
The classification of digital documents as an element in information retrieval
Classification of non-text and multi-media digital documents
Analyses of classification systems emerging in digital media, e.g. the Web, mobile communication technologies, e-mail, instant messaging and multi-media communication environments
Bottom up classifications such as folksonomies and tag clouds
Issues related to transformation of classifications of digital media from one medium to another
Understanding of change and socio-organizational enactment processes of classification of digital documents
Classification for categorization/routing/filtering of text documents;
Theoretical and methodological elaborations of classification theory for enhancing research and/or practice of utilizing digital media.
Minitrack co-chairs:
Barbara Kwaśnik, Professor (please address all correspondence to this address)
Hinds Hall
School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY 13244
Phone: 315 443-4547
Fax: 315 443-5806
bkwasnik@syr.edu
Kevin Crowston, Professor
Hinds Hall
School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY 13244
Phone: 315 443-1676
Fax: 315 443-5806
crowston@syr.edu
IMPORTANT DEADLINES
From now to June 1: If you wish, you may prepare an abstract and contact the minitrack chairs for guidance and indication of appropriate content.
June 15: Authors submit full papers by this date, following the AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS. Please consult the HICSS main website for complete information http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu All papers will be submitted in double column publication format and limited to 10 pages including diagrams and references. HICSS papers undergo a double-blind review (June15 – August15).
August 15: Acceptance notices are sent to Authors. At this time, at least one author of an accepted paper should begin visa, fiscal and travel arrangements to attend the conference to present the paper.
September 15: Authors submit Final Version of papers following submission instructions posted on the HICSS web site. At least one author of each paper must register by this date with specific plans to attend the conference.
October 2: Papers without at least one registered author will be pulled from the publication process; authors will be notified.