Patterns for Participation, Action, and Change CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

[Claudia Westermann]

First CALL FOR 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 at 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
Christopher Alexander (inspiration and advice), Steve Berczuk
(patterns), Susan Kretchmer and Rod Carveth (NCA liaisons), Noriko
Okazaki (graphics), Robin Oppenheimer (advisor), Scott Rose (web
technology). Nancy White (advisor).


Lorraine Pozzi
femme2 at scn.org
Organizational Liaison
Shaping the Network Society Symposium
May 16-19, 2002, Seattle
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