http://www.ccsr.cse.dmu.ac.uk/conferences/ethicomp/ethicomp2011/
Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK
Wednesday 14 September to Friday 16 September 2011
Call for Papers to the 12^th ETHICOMP conference*
The ETHICOMP conference series was launched in 1995 by the Centre for
Computing and Social Responsibility (CCSR). Professor Terry Bynum and
Professor Simon Rogerson are the founders and joint directors. The
purpose of this series is to provide an inclusive forum for discussing
the ethical and social issues associated with the development and
application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Conferences are held about every 18 months. There have been eleven
previous conferences in Europe and beyond. Delegates and speakers from
all continents have attended. Around 800 papers have been presented.
ETHICOMP 2011 has the overall theme of “The social impact of social
computing”.
Wang et al (2007 p79) explain, “With the advance of Internet and Web
technologies, the increasing accessibility of computing resources and
mobile devices, the prevalence of rich media contents, and the ensuing
social, economic, and cultural changes, computing technology and
applications have evolved quickly over the past decade. They now go
beyond personal computing, facilitating collaboration and social
interactions in general. As such, social computing, a new paradigm of
computing and technology development, has become a central theme across
a number of information and communication technology (ICT) fields. It
has become a hot topic attracting broad interest from not only
researchers but also technologists, software and online game vendors,
Web entrepreneurs, business strategists, political analysts, and digital
government practitioners, to name a few.”
There can be many positive effects of social computing. For example,
social computing can be used beyond socialising to seek advice and
professional development as well as offering new business uses. It
creates a collective intelligence across society through interactive
collaboration across fast communication networks. Citizens are empowered
and their voice is heard. This helps in establishing positive
relationships such as that between the trader and the consumer. It
provides an opportunity to break down barriers and interact across
cultures and countries. However, there also are potentially harmful
effects resulting from social computing. For example, there are
potential losses in privacy. There is increasing profiling of consumers
and job applicants from information to be found on social media
networks. Social computing, particularly when it is unregulated,
provides platforms for harming children. Social interaction can become
stilted through the use of social computing incapable of supporting all
aspects of human communication in a flexible and adaptive manner.
The overall theme of ETHICOMP 2011 is the huge range of impacts on us
all of advances in social computing. Under this theme, papers, with a
social/ethical perspective, within the following areas are particularly
welcomed.
APPLICATIONS
* Online communities – Blogs, wikis, social networks, collaborative
bookmarking, social tagging, podcasts, tweeting, augmented reality
* Business and public sector – Recommendation, forecasting,
reputation, feedback, decision analysis, e-government, e-commerce
* Interactive entertainment – Edutainment, training, gaming,
storytelling
TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
* Web technology
* Database technology
* Multimedia technology
* Wireless technology
* Agent technology
* Software engineering
THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS
* Social psychology
* Communication and human-computer interaction theories
* Social network analysis
* Anthropology
* Organisation theory
* Sociology
* Computing theory
* Ethical theory
* Information and computer ethics
* Governance
Papers covering one or several of these perspectives are called for from
business, government, computer science, information systems, law, media,
anthropology, psychology, sociology and philosophy. Interdisciplinary
papers and those from new researchers and practitioners are encouraged.
A paper might take a conceptual, applied, practical or historical focus.
Case studies and reports on lessons learned in practice are welcomed.
*How to submit*
As in previous ETHICOMP conferences, papers written in English and not
published nor submitted elsewhere will be accepted on the basis of an
extended abstract of between 800 and 1000 words after a careful review
by Programme Committee members. Whilst more than one paper from an
author or co-authors is welcomed the final decision on which papers are
accepted will probably lead to no more than three papers from a given
author being accepted. This will give more opportunity for as many
people as possible to participate in ETHICOMP 2011.
The first page of each submission must include the title, all of the
authors’ names, affiliations, complete mailing addresses including
email, telephone numbers, and a statement of commitment that one of the
authors will present the paper at ETHICOMP 2011 in the UK.
A submission lacking any of the above information or outside the range
of 800-1000 word limit may not be considered by the Programme Committee
for inclusion in the conference programme.
Please make submissions in the electronic form via email as embedded
plain text or an attachment in RTF format.
Abstracts must be submitted no later than 07 February 2011 to
ccsr@dmu.ac.uk. Authors will be informed of the decision of the
Programme Committee by 04 April 2011.
*Important Dates*
30 September 2010 – Call for papers
07 February 2011 – Latest date to submit abstracts to ccsr@dmu.ac.uk
04 April 2011 – Authors informed of programme committee decisions
20 June 2011 – Last date for receipt of full papers from authors
(electronic version)
14 September to 16 September 2011 – ETHICOMP 2011, Sheffield Hallam
University, UK