In the last five minutes of the unConference, I want to make some public thankyous.
THANKYOU
Now, onto practicalities. If you have any record of the unConference (blogs, pics, pods, whatever) please let us know so we can link your record into the hub.
We are in the process of setting up a mailing list and a wiki — if you don’t get invited to join in the next few days, check the website at http://irgo.otago.ac.nz or email us at irgo@otago.ac.nz and we’ll set you up.
There is a lot of energy and an obvious need for us to carry on our discussions, so if you have any ideas don’t be afraid to speak up!
The final deadline for both registration and unConference panel topic submissions is this Thursday, 5th November. The panel topic submission site is hotting up, with a panel of fandom and the internet taking the surprise lead in the voting - not what you’re into? Then go vote up other topics, such as “Copy rights, copyleft, and CreativeCommons”, “Online community building” or “Computers, young children, and literacy” just to name a few. This is a unConference where you get what you ask for, so make sure your voice is heard.
For those who have already registered, thankyou. The diversity of people attending this event is staggering. In the next couple of days, we will be posting on our website a stack of practical information about the unConference — from how to acccess the wifi network, to what we’re offering for lunch! (yes, we feed you. We’re nice that way). But if you have a specific burning question, by all means tweet or email the unConference committee. We’re here to help.
Stay tuned for more updates!
The IRGO website has a new test page comprising JS-Kit’s new realtime community and sharing services called “Echo”. It is touted as the “next generation commenting system” providing tools to manage conversations and integrate these into Twitter, Facebook, etc.
There are a number of modules for navigation, commenting, sharing, etc. so try them all out and let us know what you think. Perhaps answering questions such as:
To try, go to the IRGO Echo test page.
The Internet Research Group of Otago is pleased to announce that our second guest speaker at the inaugural IRGO unConference 2009: NZ’s Digital Futures is Rod Snodgrass, Telecom NZ’s Group Strategy Director.
As Group Strategy Director, Rod Snodgrass drives the development of Telecom’s Group Strategy with the aim of optimising Telecom’s portfolio of businesses and initiatives, including Group corporate development, and coordinating Telecom’s transformation and growth agendas. Prior to becoming Group Strategy Director, Rod held a number of positions in Telecom, including GM Group Strategy and Development, GM of the Wired Division, including Telecom’s retail fixed-line, voice, data and internet businesses, and GM of Xtra. Rod has also held various financial, commercial and business development roles in the division. Rod joined Telecom in 1998 after seven years in various strategy, business development and commercial roles in the oil and gas exploration and production industry. Hailing from Nelson in the South Island, Rod spent his youth in Nelson and New Plymouth before graduating from Wellington’s Victoria University with a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration.
Drawing on his diverse experience in NZ telecommunications, Rod will be addressing the conference’s closing remarks, and joins our opening guest speaker, Professor Greg Hearn, from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
The inaugural IRGO unConference will be held at the Centre for Innovation, the University of Otago, Dunedin New Zealand, from the 23-24th November, 2009. Information about the unConference is available online at http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/glance.html
If you would like to join us at this event, there are still limited places available to register for the unConference, but places are filling fast. Registration is free, and the registration form is available online at: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/registration.html
The unConference submission site is also still open for submissions and voting. To nominate a topic you would like to see discussed at the unConference, or to vote on topics already suggested, please head to: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/submissions.html You do not need to be registered to submit a topic for the unConference, or to vote topics up or down. The topics with the most votes will make it onto the unConference schedule, so check back often to vote on the new submissions!
We look forward to seeing you at what is shaping up to be a fascinating event. In the meantime, if you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact the organizing committee at irgo@otago.ac.nz
fyi
CALL FOR PAPERS (Please direct all inquires to the website/email links below)
IFIP 9.5 WG Virtuality & Society http://www.ifip95wg.org are pleased to announce our next gathering as a part of IFIP’s 50th Anniversary conference:
WORLD COMPUTER CONGRESS 2010
20-23 September 2010
Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre Brisbane, Australia
http://www.wcc2010.org/
CALL FOR PAPERS
===============
9th Human Choice and Computers (IFIP-TC9-HCC9) Track 2:
Virtual Technologies and Social Shaping
———————————————————-
Following on the recent (April 2009) International Working Conference of IFIP 9.5 Working Group on Virtuality and Society, “Images of Virtuality,” at Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece, this conference will be a track of the IFIP Technical Committee 9th Human Choice and Computers (HCC9) stream of the IFIP World Computer Congress, in Brisbane, Australia, September 2010 http://www.wcc2010.org/ .
This track will focus on the feedback loops between virtual technologies and the social groups who use them, how each shape the other and are in turn shaped by them. Social shaping, the sociology of technology, science studies and other approaches of cultural studies to the phenomenon of the information society, driven by such classics as those of Bijker and Law and Mackenzie and Wajcman from the 1990s, are arguably now ready for a fresh look, in the context of virtual environments and global social networking and gaming communities.
The intervening years have additionally seen an explosion of digital and media arts interpretations, and explorations of the impact of virtual technologies upon society, and the social use of such technologies upon their design, and the entrepreneurial trajectories of their appearance in the global market.
Virtual technologies, crucially, have moved very decisively from the workplace - whether corporate or home office - and into the domestic sphere, into our living rooms, playrooms, our kitchens, and our bedrooms. Here the relationship between virtual technologies and society, and the mutual shaping processes each undergo, are ripe for fresh study, insight, and exploration. The Virtuality and Society Working Group sub-stream of the Human Choice and Computers stream of the World Computer Congress therefore invites research and work-in-progress papers that address the choices faced by an information society permeated by ubiquitous virtual technologies.
Relevant topics and themes include, but are not limited to:
Additional information on the work of IFIP 9.5 WG is available at
http://www.ifip95wg.org
Program Committee
==================
Programme Chair:
David Kreps, Salford Business School, Salford University, UK.
Programme Co-chairs:
Martin Warnke, Computer Science & Culture, Leuphana University, Lueneburg, Deutschland, and Claus Pias, University of Vienna,
Austria Chrisanthi Avgerou, Management Information Systems and Innovation,
London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
Oliver Burmeister, University of Wollongong, Australia
Simran Grewal, University of Bath, UK
Niki Panteli, School of Management, University of Bath, UK.
Erika Pearson, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand
Angeliki Poulymenakou, Management Science & Technology, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
Steve Sawyer, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University, USA
Lin Yan, Greenwich University, UK
Instructions for paper submission
=================================
Papers must not substantially overlap with papers that have been published
or are simultaneously submitted to a journal or another conference with
proceedings. Papers must be written in English; they should be at most 1O-12
pages in total, including bibliography and well-marked appendices. Papers
should be intelligible without appendices, if any.
Accepted papers will be presented at the conference and published in the
IFIP Series by Springer. Submitted and accepted papers must follow the
publisher’s guidelines for the IFIP Series (www.springer.com/series/6102),
Author templates, Manuscript preparation in Word). At least one author of
each accepted paper must register to the conference and present the paper.
All papers must be submitted in electronic form through the web via
http://www.wcc2010.org by the deadline indicated below, indicating for which
HCC9-track they apply. Papers submitted after this deadline will be
discarded without review.
Important dates
===============
Intention to submit: Immediately
Submission of papers: January 31, 2010
Notification to authors: April 20, 2010
Camera-ready copies: May 15, 2010
Intention to submit and submission must be sent also to the two HCC9 IPC
Chairs, and according to your track choice to the tracks chairs:
Jacques Berleur, Namur University, Belgium: jberleur@info.fundp.ac.be
Magda Hercheui, Westminster Business School and London School of Economics, United Kingdom m.hercheui@googlemail.com
Track 2: Virtual Technologies and Social Shaping David Kreps, Salford Business School, Salford University, UK, d.g.kreps@salford.ac.uk
Martin Warnke, Computer Science & Culture, Leuphana University, Lueneburg, Deutschland., warnke@leuphana.de,
Claus Pias, University of Vienna, Austria
There have been some queries made about the format of the panel discussions at the unConference, and how the submission system works.
In point form:
1) People post ideas for possible topics at the submission system
2) These ideas are voted up or down depending on whether people are interested in the topic
3) After submissions close, the unConference committee takes the highest-ranked topics and makes them available for people to volunteer to sit on the panels.
4) At the unConference, the panel lead the discussion, invite questions and comments from the audience, and follow the idea wherever it may lead. It is a free-form and free-flowing discussion, rather than extended prepared remarks, and with plenty of audience participation!
Hope that clarifies things! If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact the conference team.
IRGO is pleased to be hosting the inaugural IRGO unConference on the 23 and 24th of November 2009 at the Centre for Innovation, University of Otago, Dunedin.
The topic of the unConference is “New Zealand’s Digital Futures.” Our opening address will be by Professor Greg Hearn, Director of the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation at QUT. Our closing speaker will be announced shortly.
The unConference aims to bring together scholars and practitioners from around the region to discuss the future of the internet from multiple perspectives. In particular, the conference will focus around three key questions. Firstly, what might be possible for the future internet of the region? Secondly, what will citizens want from the internet in the future (two, five, ten years ahead)? And thirdly, what potential internet problems or issues will we have to navigate in the immediate future?
As this is an unConference, the direction of the discussion is up to you. We are using a submission system where people can suggest topics for panels, nominate panelists, and even vote topics up or down. The final list of topics will be decided by popular vote — and you do not need to be a registered attendee to vote! We will be making conference artifacts available online, so anyone interested can nominate and vote on topics.
Finally, thanks to University of Otago, registration is FREE. However, places are limited, so please register ASAP to confirm your place.
For general information on the conference: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/glance.html
To connect to the submissions system: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/submissions.html
For registration: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/registration.html
Please feel free to forward to any interested colleagues. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us through the website or via email: irgo@otago.ac.nz
We look forward to seeing you in November