ANN: FEMA Encourages Public Participation

FEMA Encourages Public Participation

By Ed O'Keefe

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 4, 2009

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said this week that he will devote considerable efforts to boosting citizen participation in disaster preparedness, a shift from previous emergency management perceptions of the general public as a liability.

Part of those efforts, he said, should include a concerted effort by the federal government to better promote preparedness as a basic American responsibility.

"As we prepare for disasters, we have to look at the public as a resource, not as a liability," Fugate said during a conference call with homeland security bloggers on Tuesday -- one of the first times a DHS official has hosted a forum exclusively for online journalists.

"With all the other stuff we do at FEMA, that's one area that you'll probably hear and see me talk about more consistently than probably any other subject," he said, without providing any specific details for how he planned to recruit average Americans for the task.

Fugate touted the agency's YouTube and Twitter efforts and DisasterHelp.gov as examples of the agency's efforts to spread the word in new ways. During a visit to FEMA headquarters late last week, President Obama urged residents of hurricane-prone areas to plan ahead for this year's tropical weather, suggesting that preparedness is a responsibility of citizenship.

Fugate agreed but cautioned that changing the perception of preparedness will take a long-term concerted effort. It took broad public campaigns to alter the nation's views on smoking and seat belt use, he said, suggesting similar efforts will be necessary to sell the importance of disaster preparedness.

"I'm not sure what's going to work," Fugate admitted. When asked, he said it will take much more than statements similar to the one Obama made last week.

"You're not going to get there with a sound bite or a short campaign," he said.

Source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/03/AR2009060303404.html

ANN: Nordic Design conference, Nordes 2009

We invite you to participate in the third Nordic Design Research

Conference, NORDES?09: Engaging Artefacts taking place in Oslo,
Norway, from 30 August to 1 September 2009. The conference is hosted
by The Oslo School of Architecture and Design in collaboration with
The University of Oslo.

We offer an interesting program over two and a half days. The keynote
speakers are Lizbeth Goodman (SMARTlab, London), Mark Cameron Burry
(SIAL at RMIT, Australia) and Lavrans Løvlie (LiveWork, Oslo/London).
The programme includes paper presentations of 20 research papers and
13 exploratory papers, six workshops and one tutorial, five design
cases and an exhibition of 13 artefacts and one performance, in
addition to a doctoral consortium. We expect lively social gatherings
and promise a reception at Oslo's New Opera and a conference dinner at
Ekebergrestauranten, both very beautiful buildings with a spectacular
view of The Oslo Fjord.

Design research aims to provide new insights to the ways in which we
understand ? and do ? design. The scope of the conference reaches
beyond traditional design disciplines and includes other research
areas with mutual interest in design research and engaging artefacts.

Some of these themes are:
? Consumption: we invite critical perspectives on the increasing number
and diversity of artefacts and their creative design
but also use and abuse
in a global economy
? Production: diverse views on the complexity, interrelations and
consequences of production
? Technology: new forms given by new materials ? and new materials
developed to enable new forms
? Interactivity: performance and system oriented thinking regarding the
interaction between artefacts, material systems, environments and users
? Politics: the role of artefacts in shaping alternative futures
especially addressing accessibility, sustainability, poverty
and democracy

The bi-annual Nordes Conferences provide a meeting point for the
Nordic Design Research network. The network also arranges the Nordes
Summer schools and other Nordes activities. Nordes promotes the
dissemination of design research through the Nordes Digital Archive.
The Nordes board includes design researchers from all Nordic
countries, elected at each Nordes conference.

Early bird registration ends 1. August.
Please visit www.nordes.org to register for the conference today.

Conference co-chairs
Tone Bratteteig, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Birger Sevaldson, Inst. of Industrial Design, Oslo School of Architecture
and Design,N

Papers co-chairs
Andrew Morrison, InterMedia, Univ. of Oslo/ Oslo School of Architecture
and Design, N
Tuuli Mattelmäki, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland
Håkan Edeholt, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway

Artefacts for exhibition, design cases co-chairs
Ole Smørdal, InterMedia, University of Oslo, Norway
Maziar Raein, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway
Michael Ulrich Hensel, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway

Tutorials and workshops co-chairs
Christina Mörtberg, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Judith Gregory, Insitute of Design, IIT, United States

Doctoral Consortium co-chairs
Dag Svanæs, Dept. of Computer and Information Science, NTNU, Trondheim,
Norway
Ben Matthews, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark
Dagny Stuedahl, InterMedia, University of Oslo, Norway
Trond Are Øritsland, Interaction Design. NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
Turkka Keinonen, University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland

CFP: "Collaborative Infrastructuring" workshop at ECSCW 2009

Call for Position Papers for the "Collaborative Infrastructuring"

workshop
organized at ECSCW'09 conference (http://www.ecscw09.org/)
Vienna, September 7, 2009
Sumission deadline: July 3, 2009 (extended)

Collaborative Infrastructuring – Conceptualizing Emergence and Design
of Information Infrastructures
=
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========================================================================

Description

The workshop aims to help develop a richer understanding of issues
related to the analysis and design of infrastructures:
1) the concepts, issues and theories that can inform our analysis both
of the infrastructures themselves, and of the processes of
collaborative infrastructure design
2) the concepts, issues, theories and methods that can improve the
processes of doing collaborative infrastructure design.
The workshop will examine issues around the collaborative design and
use of information infrastructures through a collective sharing and
analysis of case studies. We welcome as position papers analyses on
empirical studies or descriptions of cases that the authors are
familiar with. The workshop approach will be a collaborative activity
involving a 'live metareview' over participants' case studies. That
is, the group will consider in turn a number of issues emerging from
the cases. For each issue we will discuss whether and how it manifests
in the particular infrastructure settings that each participant is
familiar with or has studied. This will enable the participants to
gain a richer understanding of the research space around
infrastructure design and use. Goals of the one-day workshop are: case
studies explored, key issues and special problematics identified, a
poster prepared for the conference poster session, a journal special
issue planned – and networking.

Organizers
Karen Baker, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of
California San Diego, USA
Pelle Ehn, School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University, Sweden
Sara Eriksén, School of Computing, Blekinge Institute of Technology,
Sweden
Helena Karasti, Department of Information Processing Science,
University of Oulu, and Department of Information Technology,
University of Turku, Finland
Volkmar Pipek, Institute for Information Systems, University of
Siegen, Germany
Michael Twidale, Graduate School of Library and Information Science,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Workshop web site and workspace
A more detailed workshop description and other workshop information is
posted at http://infrastructuring.wineme.fb5.uni-siegen.de/
A BSCW workspace is available at
https://bscw.wineme.fb5.uni-siegen.de/bscw/bscw.cgi (for accepted
participants by invitation after July 3)

Position paper submission
Position papers are invited that include one or more case studies,
empirical research or at least some description of an infrastructure
setting that the authors are familiar with and can discuss at the
workshop. The position paper should also include some analysis of that
setting, including but not limited to how infrastructure work is
defined and how it is carried out.
Position papers will be published in a Special Issue of the
'International Reports on Socio-Informatics' (http://irsi.iisi.de/). A
further book publication is planned.

Length 4-8 pages. Formatting instructions for submissions are
available at http://infrastructuring.wineme.fb5.uni-siegen.de/

Submission of position papers: Position papers are to be submitted via
email (sara.eriksen@bth.se) by July 3, 2009.

Maximum number of participants: Approximately 15

On behalf of the organizing group,
Volkmar Pipek

--
Prof. Dr. Volkmar Pipek
Juniorprofessur für Computerunterstützte Gruppenarbeit in
Organisationen/FB 5
Universität Siegen
Hölderlinstr. 3
57068 Siegen
http://www.cscw.uni-siegen.de/
Tel.: +49 271 740 4068
Fax.: +49 271 740 3384
volkmar.pipek@uni-siegen.de

CFP: 4th European Conference on Smart Sensing and Context

> CALL FOR POSTERS AND DEMOS
>
> ***** EuroSSC 2009 *****
>
> ***** 4th IEEE European Conference on Smart Sensing and Context *****
>
> The deadline for your 4 page submission is on
> 20 July 2009
>
> 16-18 September 2009
> Guildford, UK
>
> http://www.eurossc.org/
>
> **********************************************************************
>
> We would like to invite you to present your recent and on-going work
> on smart sensing and context as a poster or demo at EuroSSC 2009.
>
> The annual conference explores new techniques, algorithms,
> architectures, protocols, services, and user aspects utilising context
> and context-aware services and applications. Topics coverage include
> smart sensing, context recognition, and context processing in the
> framework of a Real World Internet. Of growing interest are methods
> and principles for context abstraction and processing, quality of
> context, machine-interpretable representation of context, context-
> aware service platforms, and horizontalisation of context information
> access to leverage smart surroundings for a wide range of applications
> rather than single closed systems.
>
> Past editions were held at ETH Switzerland (2008), University of
> Lancaster in UK (2007), and University of Twente, Netherlands (2006).
>
> Topics of interest:
> ==================
>
> * Distributed smart sensing and context recognition
> o Smart sensing: sensors inferring context and context-aware sensing
> o Context-aware surroundings and infrastructures
> o Distributed objects and wearables inferring context
> o Algorithms and architectures for scalable context recognition
> o Quality of Context (context uncertainty, unreliable sensing)
> o Distributed software architectures for context awareness
>
> * Context processing and categorisation
> o Context reasoning, fusion, transformation, inference
> o Context processing given Quality of Context
> o Scalable context management and processing architectures
> o Information aspects of context-aware sensor and actuator systems
> o Context categorisation and classification
>
> * Context-altering actuators, interaction methods, and human aspects
> o Principles and methods for context-aware actuation and feedback
> o Distributed context-aware actuators
> o Interaction with context-aware objects, wearables and proactive
> interfaces
> o Quality of Actuation
> o Symbiosis between autonomic context-aware sensor and actuator
> systems and users
> o Social implications, user-controlled privacy, securing context
>
> * Service environment, applications, deployment, test beds and case
> studies
> o Real-world experiences with deployed systems
> o Applications and case studies related to smart surroundings &
> intelligent objects
> o Integration with the Internet of the Future – the Real World
> Internet
> o Development tools, deployment principles, and life-cycle support
> o Wearable computing and pervasive computing applications
> o Sensor networks and information processing for new generations
> of context enabled devices
> o Intelligent sensors and sensor network systems
> o Context-aware service platforms
>
>
> Keynotes:
> =========
>
> * Professor Amit Sheth from the Wright State University will talk
> about "Computing for Human Experience: Semantics empowered Sensors,
> Services, and Social Computing on ubiquitous Web".
> His homepage is at http://knoesis.wright.edu/amit/
>
> * Dr. Marimuthu Palaniswami from ARC Research Network on Intelligent
> Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing (ISSNIP), the
> University of Melbourne will hold a talk on "Large Scale Sensor
> Networks Deployment: Research Challenges and Opportunities"
> His homepage is at http://www.ee.unimelb.edu.au/staff/swami/
>
>
> Submission:
> ===========
> Posters should present recent and on-going research in smart sensing
> and context area. The poster submissions should include a 4-page (LNCS
> format) description of the current research. The demonstrations also
> require a 4-page (LNCS format) submission to describe the presented
> work. Accepted submissions for posters and demonstrations will be
> printed in the adjunct conference proceedings with an own ISBN number.
> The submitted work is expected to be presented at the conference.
> Submission open at: http://senldogo0039.springer-sbm.com/EuroSSC2009/
>
> For more information about the conference, please visit:
> http://www.eurossc.org
>
> --
> EuroSSC Poster & Demo Chair
> Clemens Lombriser, ETH Zürich
>
> lombriser@ife.ee.ethz.ch
> www.ife.ee.ethz.ch/people/lclemens/
>

CFP: international student essay

CRSCAD is sponsoring an international student essay competition on the topic of their upcoming conference, Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with the Elderly and Disabled People after Disasters. The aim of the contest is to persuade college and university students to examine the challenges that the elderly and the disabled face during and after disasters in their own cultural and local contexts.

The 50 winning essays will be published as a CRSCAD monograph and the top 20 winners will be invited to participate in the conference and publicly honored. For further information please contact me or Rachael Wilcox at crscad@umb.edu

Deadline:  November 1, 2009

 

Angela Devlen

Managing Partner

Wakefield Brunswick

617.710.4439

adevlen@wakefieldbrunswick.com

www.wakefieldbrunswick.com

 

 

 

CFP UBICOMP 2009 Workshop CFP - Taking Ubicomp Beyond Developed Worlds

****** UBICOMP 2009 Workshop **************************

Globicomp - Taking Ubicomp Beyond Developed Worlds
Sept 30th 2009, Florida, USA

Organisers: Matt Jones (Swansea, UK) & Gary Marsden (UCT, South Africa)

http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009
in conjunction with ubicomp 2009 (http://www.ubicomp.org/ubicomp2009/)
***************************************************************

First Call for Position Papers
---------------------------------------

Ubicomp ­ everywhere, everybody technology and systems. But are we really
exploring inclusive visions? Is ubicomp for everyone or only the relatively
affluent?

This workshop is about the billions of people who do not fit the sorts of
context mainstream ubicomp has addressed. There are hundreds of millions of
users, and billions to come in the next 5 years, in places like India, China
and Africa, whose first, and perhaps only, experience of computing will be
in the form of mobile and other ubicomp technologies. Many of these users
will never live in the sorts of home, or work in the types of office, or
daydream in the parks, or take a day-off for the sorts of amusement park
envisaged by earlier research.

If you are already working on developing world ubicomp, or are interested in
finding out how to create effective technologies for these new environments,
then we would encourage you to contribute and attend the workshop.

But it is not just 'developing' countries. What about the marginalised in
our 'developed' world ­ the urban poor, the ill-educated, the homeless, the
computer non-literate; i.e. those without access to what many of us take as
essential digital infrastructure? We invite contributions considering these
contexts too.

Accepted participants will be encouraged to produce posters, videos or
interactive demos which will be showcased in the main conference. The
Ubicomp organisers are keen to see this topic discussed amongst all the
attendees.

Submissions
------------------

Position papers of up to 4 pages in length should be formatted using the ACM
template and advice found here.

Papers in two categories are welcome:

1. Those considering either specific innovations or applications of
ubicomp to "developing" world and other marginalised contexts;
2. and, from researchers who wish to raise issues or discuss the
potential of mainstream ubicomp to these sorts of underrepresented
constituencies.

Topics of interest include (but of course are not limited to!):

1. Interface and interaction issues
2. Devices and infrastructure
3. Design and development methodologies
4. Environmental impact and sustainability
5. Case studies and experience reports
6. Theoretical perspectives and critiques

See the website for submission details
<http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009>

Key Dates
---------------
Papers due:
June 23, 2009
Acceptance notifications:
July 24, 2009
Final copy due:
September 1, 2009
Workshop:
September 30, 2009

Publications/ Dissemination
------------------

Papers will be made available online before the workshop

Posters & demos will be showcased in the main Ubicomp Conference

A special issue of Springer/ACM Personal & Ubiquitous Computing is scheduled
for after the workshop (full paper submissions will be solicited in a
separate call).

Programme Committee
--------------------------------

Russell Beale University of Birmingham, UK
Nicola Bidwell James Cook University, Australia
Eli Blevis, Indiana University, USA
Stephen Brewster Glasgow University, UK
Anxo Cereijo Roibas Vodafone User Experience
Keith Cheverst Lancaster University, UK
Andrew Deardon, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Jussi Impio, Nokia, Kenya
Amit A Navavati IBM Research, India
Abigal Sellen Microsoft Research, UK
Yvonne Rogers, Open University, UK
Lucia Terrenghi Vodafone R&D, Germany.

Further committee members to be confirmed.

CFP: UbiComp 2009] Call for Posters

Ubicomp 2009

Call for Posters

Submission is now open for Ubicomp Posters
Important Dates
Poster submissions

June 25th 2009 (23:59 PST)

Notification of acceptance

July 20, 2009

Camera-ready deadline

August 1, 2009

The Posters category provides researchers with an opportunity to present their bleeding-edge work in an interactive fashion in front of an expert audience, without impacting the possibility of publishing as a full paper at a later date. We encourage the submission of preliminary or exploratory work, smaller projects or results not suitable for a full paper, and any other research that would excite discussion and benefit from this open forum.

Poster submissions should include an extended abstract of no longer than 2 pages, including all figures and references. Please download and use the required templates<templates.shtml> (http://www.ubicomp.org/ubicomp2009/templates.shtml) to prepare your submission. Submissions may also include an optional single page describing or illustrating the proposed poster. This page should convey to reviewers visual aspects of the poster that may not be captured in the abstract, such as a key graphic to be used in the poster. This supplemental page is for review purposes only and will not be published. Posters submissions should be submitted electronically in PDF through PCS system. Posters submissions should not be anonymized.

Accepted Posters will be presented in three forms: as a poster at the conference poster reception, at the "1-minute madness" session preceding the reception, and as an extended abstract distributed to the attendees. The posters will be given a 30" by 40" stand at the conference poster reception, allowing all attendees to get informed about your work in person. Note that accepted submissions will be published in a Conference Supplement that will be distributed to attendees at the conference; they will not be incorporated into the main UbiComp 2009 Conference Proceedings.
Ubicomp 2009 Posters Co-Chairs
Hani Hagras, University of Essex, UK
Kristof Van Laerhoven, TU Darmstadt, Germany
posters2009@ubicomp.org<mailto:posters2009@ubicomp.org>

Ubicomp 2009 Posters Committee
Andrew Rice, University of Cambridge, UK
Kavitha Muthukrishnan, University of Twente, Netherlands
Jonna Häkkilä, Nokia Research, Finland
Elaine Huang, Motorola Labs, USA
Michael Weber, University of Ulm, Germany
Achilles Kameas, Hellenic Open University, Greece
Victor Callaghan, University of Essex, UK
Antonio Lopez, University of Oviedo, Spain
Hakan Duman, British Telecom, UK
Yacine Bellik, LMSI, France
Ankur Teredesai, University of Washington, USA
Diego Lopez de Ipina, University of Deusto, Spain
Sajid Hussain, Acadia University, Canada
Matthai Philipose, Intel Research, USA
Wolfgang Minker, University of Ulm, Germany
Michael schneider, DFKI, Germany
Marc Langheinrich, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

ANN: INTERACT 2009, early registration stops June 22nd, preliminary program available

Dear all,

We now proudly presents the advance program
including full papers, short papers and
interactive posters, demos, panels, keynotes and
SIGs. some of the tutorials and workshops are
also open for participation:

http://www.interact2009.org/?q=node/33

Please note that due to the late publication of
the final program we have extended the
opportunity for early registration until June 22.

The keynotes will be:

"Mobile life - body and interaction"
Kristina Höök, Professor of HCI at the University
of Stockholm, Sweden, and coordinator of the
Mobile Life Center

"Release often and iterate - the science behind the motto".
Nicklas Lundblad, European policy manager at Google

Towards human-centred design
Liam Bannon, University of Limerick, Ireland

Enjoy!

Jan Gulliksen and Lars Oestreicher
General co-chairs
--
=============================================================================
Jan Gulliksen, professor
mailto:Jan.Gulliksen@it.uu.se

--> August 2009
Dept. for Information Technology/HCI Tel: +46-18.471 2849
Uppsala University, Fax: +46-18.471 7811
Box 337 Cellular: +46-70.425 0086
SE-751 05 Uppsala, Sweden http://www.it.uu.se/katalog/gulan

From February 2009
professor in Human Computer Interaction
School of Computer Science and Communication
KTH - Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
mailto:gulliksen@kth.se

INTERACT 2009 in Uppsala, Sweden August 24-28, 2009 -- www.interact2009.org

CFP: Computer-Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology - ACM CHIMIT09

Papers & Short Paper Deadline is in 3 weeks! (July 3)

ACM CHIMIT '09 - Computer-Human Interaction for Management of Information
Technology

November 7-8, 2009, Baltimore, MD (Immediately after USENIX LISA, also in Baltimore)

Since 2007 CHIMIT has been the leading forum for discussing topics on IT management
with a focus on people, business, and technology. At CHIMIT, researchers and
practitioners share issues, solutions, and research drawing upon fields such as human-
computer interaction, human factors, computer systems, and management and service
sciences to address cognitive, social, and technical issues in managing the increasing
complexity of modern Information Technology (IT) systems.

Information Technology (IT) is central to modern life. From our homes to our largest
enterprises, we are surrounded by software and hardware components that support our
work and personal lives: wireless access points, network routers, firewalls, virus
scanners, databases, web servers, storage and backup systems, etc. These components
exist to permit us to do other things, e.g., manage inventory, communicate with friends
or customers, sell products through websites, yet all too often managing the underlying IT
infrastructure takes time and resources away from the real work at hand. IT systems
have grown increasingly complex over the years, and the cost for keeping the
infrastructure running is now a significant burden. We are at a turning point where
further advances in technology and business efficiency and growth require fundamentally
new approaches to IT system design, management, and services.

CHIMIT is an ACM-sponsored conference, and accepted Paper and Short Paper
submissions will be archived in the ACM Digital Library. We are also soliciting
submissions for Panels, Courses, and a non-archival Poster Session for work in progress.
Topics include (but are not limited to):

? User Studies of IT infrastructure management in context, exposing user needs, pain
points, work practices, and examples of both successful and unsuccessful work.
? Design - approaches to bring about improved, human-centered IT systems.
? Experimental Studies on the usage of new or existing IT systems.
? Tools and Techniques for improved administration, e.g., visualizations of system
behavior, or collaborative interfaces.
? Automation approaches to reduce administration workload or improve productivity.
? Organizational Knowledge - how can shared knowledge improve IT management.
? Processes and Practices - examples of best practices and improved processes in IT
management.
? New Technologies - how will the changing technological landscape (e.g., Cloud
Computing, pervasive mobile devices, etc.) affect IT management?
? IT Beyond the Enterprise - what are the implications now that we're doing backups,
network configuration, etc. in the home?

Submission Dates:

July 3, 2009: Papers and Short Papers Due
August 7, 2009: Panels and Courses Due
August 28, 2009: Selections announced
September 11, 2009: Posters Due
September 25, 2009: Poster selections announced

Further examples, details, and instructions for submissions can be found on the website:
http://www.chimit09.org

Regards,

The CHIMIT'09 Committee

CFP: Social and Mobile Technology to Support Civic Engagement, 13/14 July, QUT Brisbane

Final Call for Papers

From Social Butterfly to Urban Citizen -
A HCSNet Workshop on Social and Mobile Technology to Support Civic
Engagement

Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove Campus, Brisbane

June 19, 2009 Workshop position papers (300-500 words) due
June 26, 2009 Author notifications sent
July 13/14, 2009 Workshop

http://www.hcsnet.edu.au/node/2943

Keynote Speaker

Co-sponsored by HCSNet, QUT iCi and NICTA Queensland, we are pleased
to announce Adam Greenfield, author of 'Everyware' and Head of Design
Direction for User Interface and Services at Nokia in Helsinki, as the
keynote speaker for this workshop. His talk "The city is here for you
to use" will give us a preview of the ideas in his forthcoming new book.

The keynote is open to the public, but seats are limited. If you would
like to attend the keynote only, please RSVP to Julie-Anne Edwards by
Tue 30 June 2009 at julieanne.edwards@qut.edu.au. Workshop
participants will be admitted to the keynote automatically.

Workshop Theme

This workshop brings together people from a diverse range of
disciplines to discuss social and mobile technologies and how they can
be studied, designed and developed further to support local
participation and civic engagement in urban environments.

Web applications such as blogs, wikis, video and photo sharing sites,
and social networking systems have been termed 'Web 2.0' to highlight
an arguably more open, collaborative, personalisable, and therefore
more participatory internet experience than what had previously been
possible. Giving rise to a culture of participation, an increasing
number of these social applications are now available on mobile phones
where they take advantage of device-specific features such as sensors,
location and context awareness. This workshop will make a contribution
towards exploring and better understanding the opportunities and
challenges provided by tools, interfaces, methods and practices of
social and mobile technology that enable participation and engagement.
It will bring together a group of academics and practitioners from a
diverse range of disciplines such as computing and engineering, social
sciences, digital media and human-computer interaction to critically
examine a range of applications of social and mobile technology, such
as social networking, mobile interaction, wikis (eg.,
futuremelbourne.com.au), twitter, blogging, virtual worlds (eg,
hub2.org), and their impact to foster community activism, civic
engagement and cultural citizenship.

This workshop will be held back-to-back with an ARC Cultural Research
Network (CRN) workshop on 11/12 July 2009 at QUT titled, "Unboxing the
iPhone: The Circuits of Digital Culture," organised by Larissa Hjorth,
Jean Burgess and Ingrid Richardson, supported by the CRN's Cultural
Technologies Node. This will provide opportunities to exchange ideas
and experiences. http://www.uq.edu.au/crn/activities/glamm-iphone.html

The workshop is also very timely in that it coincides with the six
week residency of Prof. Carlo Ratti, Director of the SENSEable City
Lab at MIT, and the 2009 inaugural Queensland Innovator in Residence: http://yearofcreativity.deta.qld.gov.au/innovator.html

Audience

We hope to attract a multidisciplinary range of HCSnet members and
colleagues working in areas such as user experience design, human-
computer interaction, digital media, social sciences and computing and
engineering. The topic and themes to be explored are timely, relevant
and significant to the research work of many academics in Australia
and overseas who are looking at ways to help engender a culture of
local and national participation and engagement. Many colleagues find
that the underlying systems architecture and principles that have
given rise to participatory culture in many social and lifestyle
domains should be examined with a view to reappropriate them to foster
civic engagement and a revival of citizenship.

Event Format

The workshop will be held over two days, on Mon 13 and Tue 14 July
2009, at the Creative Industries Precinct of Queensland University of
Technology, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane. Participants will be given the
opportunity to present their work with a view to stimulate an informed
debate. The workshop will allow plenty of time for both breakout and
plenary discussions.

Submissions

We are calling for 300-500 word position statements expressing the
interest in the workshop or abstracts of proposed presentations from
prospective participants. Queries can be sent via email to Marcus Foth
at m.foth [AT] qut.edu.au. Please submit your abstract online by Fri
19 June 2009 at http://www.hcsnet.edu.au/node/add/submission/2943 You
must log in to submit an abstract. If you are not a HCSNet user yet,
please create an account at http://www.hcsnet.edu.au/user/register

This workshop is free for anyone who has been a HCSNet member for 2
months prior to the workshop. Non-members need to pay $100
registration fee for this workshop via the online facility. Please
register online by Fri 3 July 2009 at http://www.hcsnet.edu.au/events/register/2943

Travel Bursaries

HCSNet will fund a number of travel bursaries of $300 each to help
cover the costs of travel and accommodation for participants from
outside the Brisbane and South East Queensland area. HCSNet has also
approved a Student Support Grant to enable students to participate.
The provision of a submission as described above is a prerequisite for
funding. If not all participants can be covered, funding grants will
be allocated based on the relevance of your abstract to the workshop
theme; also, students and early career researchers will have priority.

Organisers

Dr Marcus Foth, Queensland University of Technology
Dr Martin Gibbs, University of Melbourne
Dr Christine Satchell, Queensland University of Technology

--
Dr Marcus Foth
Senior Research Fellow

Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology (CRICOS No. 00213J)
Victoria Park Rd, Brisbane QLD 4059, Australia
Phone +61 7 313 x88772 - Fax x88238 - Office K506, KG
m.foth@qut.edu.au - http://www.urbaninformatics.net/

CFP: 1st SIGCHI.be Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

CALL FOR PAPERS

1st SIGCHI.be Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

NEW COMMUNITIES

Affligem, Belgium

Monday 19 October 2009

http://www.sigchi.be/

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The first SIGCHI.be conference intends to bring together researchers and
practitioners working in the domain of human-computer interaction,
including usability specialists, designers, computer scientists, etc.
The organizing committee invites you to submit papers addressing the
special theme and topics for presentation at the conference.

The special theme is "New Communities". This theme addresses the recent
interest in building and supporting communities online, whether in the
form of groupware, work communities, social networks, community software
or communication tools. It also refers to the new community of Belgian
HCI professionals that this conference wants to bring together, enabling
them to present their work to each other and to the broader ICT community.

Topics

------

Papers are solicited from, but not limited to the following topics:

* community-centered design

* impact of technology on communities

* mobile devices

* ubiquitous/pervasive computing

* interactivity

* collaborative technology

* networked devices

* social spaces

* technology as a group experience

* ...

Submission guidelines and deadline

----------------------------------

Submissions are expected to be 2-8 pages long and should clearly
describe the content of the presentation. We are kindly requesting to
submit in the ACM format http://sigchi.org/chipubform/ . You can re-use
material from previously published papers.

Submissions should be addressed to david.geerts@soc.kuleuven.be.

Paper submissions will be peer-reviewed.

Deadline for submission: 15 July 2009

Announcement to authors: 1 September 2009

Organizing Committee

--------------------

Conference Organizing Committee

* Els Aerts

* Katia Aerts

* Frank Amand

* Adrien Coyette

* David De Block

* Hans De Mondt

* Dries De Roeck

* Didier Dulait

* Erik Duval

* David Geerts

* Marjan Geerts

* Kathy Haemers

* Mieke Haesen

* Maarten Hazebroek

* Dirk Huysmans

* Jan Meskens

* Alok Nandi

* Chris Raymaekers

* Karin Slegers

* Kenia Sousa

* Johan Van Maldeghem

* Bart Van Roey

* Vero Vanden Abeele

* Joannes Vandermeulen

* Johan Verhaegen

Contact

-------

For up to date information and further details please visit:
http://www.sigchi.be/

Send any inquiry about the conference to: info@sigchi.be

To receive updates about the SIGCHI.be Conference, subscribe to the
SIGCHI.be mailing list by sending a mail to
listserv@listserv.cc.kuleuven.be with the words "subscribe SIGCHI"
(without quotes) in the _body_ of the mail, or use this link:

mailto:listserv@listserv.cc.kuleuven.be?body=subscribe%20SIGCHI

About SIGCHI.be

---------------

SIGCHI.be is the Belgian branch of SIGCHI, the premier international
society for professionals, academics and students who are interested in
human-computer interaction (HCI). We want to increase knowledge and
awareness of HCI in its broadest sense, both within educational
institutions and industry.

The current board of SIGCHI.be is made up of a mix of people from
industry and academia:

* David Geerts, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - treasurer

* Joannes Vandermeulen, Namahn - president
* Johan Verhaegen, Human Interface Group - secretary

ANN: UASI Conference: Closing Session Webcast

Thanks to the support of Tandberg and Incident Communications Solutions, we

will be streaming the closing general session of the 2009 National UASI
Conference on Thursday afternoon from 3:30-5pm ET. This session will
include DHS GPD leadership and conference chairs in a discussion of the
future of UASI in general and the National UASI conference in particular.

The link and password below will get you to the feed. If you go to the site
before the event, you will get a blank page. It will go live automatically
when the stream is started.

Viewers go to:
http://natcs.tandberg.com/tcs/?a=7785#page:conferenceList&status:live&pageNu
mber:1
Password = UASI (all caps)

Windows IE - nothing special needed

Windows FireFox - may need Windows Media Plugin for FireFox (
http://port25.technet.com/pages/windows-media-player-firefox-plugin-download
.aspx )
MAC - Need Silverlight ( http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/ )

You can also follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/UrbanAreas

Regards,

Steve Davis

CFP: FUTURE COMPUTING 2009 || November 15-20, 2009 - Athens, Greece

INVITATION

=================

Please consider to contribute to and/or forward to the appropriate groups
the following opportunity to submit and publish original scientific
results.

=================

============== FUTURE COMPUTING 2009 | Call for Papers ===============

CALL FOR PAPERS, TUTORIALS, PANELS

FUTURE COMPUTING 2009: The First International Conference on Future
Computational Technologies and Applications

November 15-20, 2009 - Athens, Greece

General page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2009/FUTURECOMPUTING09.html

Call for Papers:
http://www.iaria.org/conferences2009/CfPFUTURECOMPUTING09.html

Submission deadline: June 30, 2009

Sponsored by IARIA, www.iaria.org

Extended versions of selected papers will be published in IARIA Journals:
http://www.iariajournals.org

It will be held with events under ComputationWorld 2009:
http://www.iaria.org/conferences2009/ComputationWorld09.html

Please note the Poster Forum and Work in Progress tracks.

The topics suggested by the conference can be discussed in term of
concepts, state of the art, research, standards, implementations, running
experiments, applications, and industrial case studies. Authors are
invited to submit complete unpublished papers, which are not under review
in any other conference or journal in the following, but not limited to,
topic areas.

All tracks are open to both research and industry contributions, in terms
of Regular papers, Posters, Work in progress, Technical/marketing/business
presentations, Demos, Tutorials, and Panels.

Before submission, please check and conform with the Editorial rules:
http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html

FUTURE COMPUTING 2009 Tracks (tracks' topics and submission details: see
CfP on the site)

Computational intelligence strategies

Cognitive computing; Intelligent computation; Ambient computing;
Unconventional computing; Indeterminist computing; Adaptive computation;
Autonomic computation; Computation under uncertainty; Chaotic computation;
Intentional computing; Anticipative computing; Evolutionary computing

Mechanism-oriented computing

Spatial computation; Elastic computing; Human-centered computing; Embedded
computing; Entertainment computing; Time-sensitive/temporal computing;
Soft computing (fuzzy logic, neural computing, evolutionary computation,
machine learning, and probabilistic reasoning + belief networks, + chaos
theory + learning theory)

Large-scale computing strategies

Distributed computing; Parallel computing; Macro- and micro-computing;
Activity-based computing; Data intensive computing; Resource-constraint
computing; Grid computing; Cloud computing; Cluster computing; On-demand
computing; Ubiquitous/pervasive computing

Computing technologies

Quantum computing; Optical computing; DNA (genetic) computing; Molecular
computing; Reversible computing; Billiard Ball computing; Neuronal
computing; Magnetic computing; Gloopware computing; Moldy computing; Water
wave-based computing; Graphene-based computing

Technology-oriented computing

Peer-to-Peer computing; Mobile computing; Sensor-based computing; Wireless
computing; Trusted computing; Financial computing; Genetic computation

==========

IARIA Publicity Board

Committee members:
http://www.iaria.org/conferences2009/ComFUTURECOMPUTING09.html

CFP: Workshop Touch Affordances (Interact 2009)

*

====================================================================================
*

*Deadline approaching!!*

*
====================================================================================
*

*Call for position papers - Workshop Touch Affordances - Interact 2009 -
August 25 - Uppsala - Sweden*

Website: http://www.touchaffordances.org

Increasingly, interfaces make use of the sense of touch as an input
mechanism (e.g. NFC phones, multi-touch tables, touch screens, tangible
interactions,…). Although in essence touch-based interfaces require very
simple user actions, many users are not familiar with such actions. As a
result, touch-based interfaces often do not trigger correct interactions.
This leads to the question of how to design simple, intuitive touch-based
interfaces. In most cases the interaction is made clear by adding (graphic)
signage. However, in this workshop, the concept of touch affordances will be
approached from a broader, creative perspective.

The goals of this workshop are to:
• start up a community around the topic of touch affordances
• create a common understanding of touch affordances
• generate new research ideas

The creative, generative workshop will have four sessions:
1. Keynote presentation by Timo Arnall and wrap-up of position papers
2. Introduction to creative part of the workshop and a brainstorm
exercise.
3. Group exercise: developing low-fi touch affordance prototypes
4. Prototype testing

Anyone interested in touch-based interfaces and interaction is invited to
participate. Participants are asked to submit a position paper (about 4
pages) about their work or vision related to the field of touch affordances..
Examples of relevant issues are:
• Methods to communicate touch-based interaction in an intuitive,
implicit way
• Success stories of intuitive touch interfaces
• The value of "touch" with regard to user perception
• The impact of a touch-related interface on user experience
For more information about the workshop and for submitting position papers,
please visit our website: http://www.touchaffordances.org.

GRA: National Fire Academy Educational Programs

http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=47852

Funding Opportunity Number:	DHS-09-USFA-019-2082
Opportunity Category:	Discretionary
Current Closing Date for Applications:	Jun 19, 2009
Funding Instrument Type:	Grant
Category of Funding Activity:	Other (see text field entitled "Explanation of Other Category of Funding Activity" for clarification)
Category Explanation:	U.S. Fire Administration-grant program
Expected Number of Awards:	1
Estimated Total Program Funding:	$22,400
Award Ceiling:	$22,400
Award Floor:
CFDA Number(s):	97.019 -- National Fire Academy Educational Program
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:	No

Eligible Applicants

Private institutions of higher education

Additional Information on Eligibility:

Agency Name

Department of Homeland Security - FEMA

Description

To enable a senior fire executive to attend and participate in the 3-week “Senior Executives in State & Local Government Program” course held twice each year at the Kennedy School of Government-Harvard University.

Link to Full Announcement

www.grants.gov

GRA: 2009 DHS Scientific Leadership Awards for Minority Serving Institutions Granting Graduate Degrees

http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=47344

Funding Opportunity Number:	DHS-09-ST-062-003
Opportunity Category:	Discretionary
Current Closing Date for Applications:	Jun 26, 2009
Funding Instrument Type:	Grant
Category of Funding Activity:	Education
Expected Number of Awards:	20
Estimated Total Program Funding:	$1,600,000
Award Ceiling:	$400,000
Award Floor:	$0
CFDA Number(s):	97.062 -- Scholars and Fellows
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:	No

Eligible Applicants

Public and State controlled institutions of higher education

Additional Information on Eligibility:

Agency Name

Office of Procurement Operations - Grants Division

Description

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Scientific Leadership Awards (SLA) support the development of a coordinated program of education in Homeland Security-related Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (HS-STEM) to prepare students for careers in research and development of the technology needed to secure our nation. Moreover, DHS S&T strongly supports the development of a workforce that reflects the population of the United States of America. The DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate, Office of University Programs solicits applications from eligible Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) granting graduate degrees to support early career faculty and to establish homeland security–related scientific leadership programs in areas critical to homeland security.

GRA: DHS Scientific Leadership Awards for Minority Serving Institutions Granting Bachelor Degrees

http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=47313

Funding Opportunity Number:	DHS-09-ST-062-002
Opportunity Category:	Continuation
Current Closing Date for Applications:	Jun 25, 2009
Funding Instrument Type:	Grant
Category of Funding Activity:	Education
Expected Number of Awards:	10
Estimated Total Program Funding:	$3,800,000
Award Ceiling:
Award Floor:
CFDA Number(s):	97.062 -- Scholars and Fellows
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:	No

Eligible Applicants

Public and State controlled institutions of higher education

Additional Information on Eligibility:

Agency Name

Office of Procurement Operations - Grants Division

Description

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Scientific Leadership Awards (SLA)support the development of a coordinated program of education in Homeland Security relatedScience, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (HS-STEM) to preparestudents for careers in research and development of the technology needed to secureour nation. Moreover, DHS S&T strongly supports the development of a workforce thatreflects the population of the United States of America. The DHS Science andTechnology (S&T) Directorate, Office of University Programs solicits applications fromeligible Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) granting bachelor degrees to support earlycareer faculty and to establish homeland security–related scientific leadership programsin areas critical to homeland security.

ANN: Issue 3, Volume 4 of the Journal of Usability Studies

UPA is happy to announce the third issue of volume 4, Journal of Usability

Studies:

http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/

This issue includes an invited essay by Nigel Bevan on the different types
of international usability standards and their potential benefits. In
addition, the issue includes three peer-reviewed articles. The first
demonstrates the efficacy of adding an adjective scale to the standard SUS
questionnaire; the second describes a method for running an empirical
usability test as part of a trade-show; and the third peer review article
examines some effects of culture on usability of MP3 player.

Avi Parush, PhD

Journal of Usability Studies - Editor in Chief

http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/index.html

Department of Psychology, Carleton University

http://www.carleton.ca/psychology/faculty/parush.html

CFP: ACM IUI 2010 - International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, Hong Kong, CHINA; 7-10 February, 2010

We are very pleased to announce the ACM International Conference on

Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI10) –Hong Kong, China; 7-10 February,
2010.

IUI 2010 is the annual meeting of the intelligent interfaces community
and serves as the principal international forum for reporting
outstanding research and development on intelligent user interfaces.
IUI is where the community of people interested in Human-Computer
Interaction (HCI) meets the Artificial Intelligence (AI) community.
We're also very interested in contributions from related fields, such
as psychology, cognitive science, computer graphics, the arts, etc..

We are inviting proposals and research papers in several categories:

*******Important Dates*******

Long & Short Paper submissions: Friday, 25 Sept. 2009, 11:59pm US PDT
Long paper review notification: Monday, 2 November 2009 Rebuttal process starts
Long paper rebuttals due: Monday, 9 November 2009 Rebuttal process ends
Long and Short Paper final notification: Friday, 23 November 2009
Long & Short Paper camera-ready due: Friday, 11 December 2009
Intention to submit workshop proposal: Friday, 17 July 2009
Workshop proposals due: Friday, 31 July 2009

Conference Co-Chairs:
Charles Rich (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA)
Qiang Yang (Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, China)

Program Co-Chairs:
Marc Cavazza (U. Teesside, UK)
Michelle Zhou (IBM Research, China)

For more information, please visit the conference website:
http://www.iuiconf.org/

Why submit to IUI?

Unlike traditional AI, our focus is not so much to make the computer
smart all by itself, but to make the interaction between computers and
people smarter. Unlike traditional HCI, we're more willing to consider
solutions that involve large amounts of knowledge, heuristics, and
emerging technologies such as natural language understanding or
gesture recognition.

The IUI conference gives you a chance to present and to see work in an
intimate, focused, no-nonsense event. It is large enough to be diverse
and lively (we expect around 200 people), but small enough to avoid
the circus-like atmosphere of conferences with thousands of people.
The vast majority of the attendees are actively involved with
conceiving and developing cutting-edge interfaces leading to a high
and fast impact of research results presented at IUI. It brings
together people from academics, industry, and nonprofits. As an ACM
conference, papers appear in the ACM Digital Library and citation
indices. There will also be a journal publication path for selected
papers. It's a single track conference, so you don't have to miss
anything. And it's always in a beautiful place!

IUI topics include, but are not limited to:

Processing of user input
Processing and integration of multimodal input
Natural language and speech processing
Gesture and handwriting processing

Generation of system output
Smart visualization tools
Intelligent generation of multimedia presentations
Generation of situation-specific output (e.g., on mobile
devices, wall-size displays, multi-touch screens, meeting
accessibility criteria)

Ubiquitous computing
Intelligent interfaces for ubiquitous computing
Smart environments

Help intelligent assistants for complex tasks
Support for collaboration in multiuser environments
Intelligent information and knowledge management

Novel, intelligent interaction system
Affective, social and aesthetic interfaces
User-adaptivity in interactive systems
Personalization and recommender systems
Modeling and prediction of user behavior
Planning and plan recognition

IUI design
Knowledge-based approaches to user interface design and generation
Proactive and agent-based paradigms for user interaction
Example-based and demonstration-based interfaces

User studies
User studies concerning intelligent interfaces
Evaluation methods and evaluations of implemented intelligent
user interfaces

-------------------------------
Li CHEN
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Publicity Chair for IUI'10

CFP: ECSCW 09 Workshop "Bridging ?Interaction Clouds?: Exploring collaborative interaction across assemblies of mobile and embedded technology

**********************CALL FOR PAPERS**********************

Workshop "Bridging ?Interaction Clouds?: Exploring collaborative interaction across assemblies of mobile and embedded technology"

To be held at ECSCW 2009, Vienna, Austria 7-8 September.
http://bridgingclouds.blogspot.com/
http://www.ecscw09.org/
***************************************************************

Overview
Portable technology, particularly in the shape of mobile phones and personal digital assistants, has become a ubiquitous force in everyday life. Advances in communication technologies have also meant that we are rapidly moving towards the convergence of mobile and stationary systems: this has allowed people to use mobile technology to engage with systems embedded in the environments they inhabit, offering a greater range of interaction possibilities and patterns that we have labeled ?Interaction Clouds?. By ?Interaction Clouds? we mean the complex patterns of interaction, sharing and exchange that unfold around assemblies of mobile and embedded technologies.
This workshop aims at exploring such issues in greater detail, with a specific focus on the design of a coherent social and collaborative experience for people as the transverse an ?assembly? of technologies. The notion of Interaction Clouds also resonates with the emergence of the internet as a resource free of device and location constraints has brought about the concept of ?cloud computing?, where technology is emerging that allows people to shift between multiple contexts (mobile/embedded), facilitated by a connection to remote computing resources (clouds). This devolving of traditional interaction paradigms brings with it new challenges to support meaningful user social and collaborative experiences, specifically how such hybrid systems can facilitate salient aspects of user experiences such as collaboration and participation.
Topics of Interest
? Studies of social and collaborative activity around interaction clouds
? Design for the support of collaboration and participation across interaction clouds
? New interaction modalities in interaction clouds that support social interaction
? Theoretical issues of how to define and study interaction clouds (merging mobility-oriented and space-oriented frameworks, new conceptual approaches, development of existing frameworks, etc.)
? Explorations of settings where interaction clouds can be meaningfully deployed: e.g. public spaces (museums, urbans areas), workplaces, domestic spaces, etc.

Dates and Deadlines
Submissions are due: June 20th, 2009
Notification of Authors: 6th July, 2009
Workshop at ECSCW 2009: September 7th - 8th, 2009

Submissions
Interested participants are invited to submit position papers in PDF format with a word limit of 5000 words. Papers should be formatted according to the ECSCW template see http://www.ecscw09.org/author.html.
The .pdf files should be sent to: marc.mcloughlin@ul.ie

Workshop outline
The Workshop will run over 1 day. The Workshop call requests the submission of short position papers. However, during the workshop, we will foster debate moving away from traditional presentations, and by facilitating discussions on shared artifacts. We will invite the participants to contribute to the workshop with either posters, or demos/prototypes, or video data documenting an experience, and these materials will be the main subject of the discussion. In the afternoon session, we will lead more focused small-group discussions and brainstorming, and practical design exercises.

Publication & dissemination
Accepted papers will be included in the Workshop Webpage. During the workshop participants will be asked to prepare posters for display during the conference. During the workshop, opportunties for future publications (such as a journal special issue) will be discussed.

Organizers
Marc McLoughlin, Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick, Ireland
Luigina Ciolfi, Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick, Ireland
Mike Fraser, University of Bristol, UK
Eva Hornecker, University of Strathclyde, UK
John Bowers, Interaction Research Studio, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

Contact Details
Workshop Webpage: www.bridgingclouds.blogspot.com
Please Contact the workshop chairs at: marc.mcloughlin@ul.ie

CFP: Workshop on Search in Social Media (SSM 2009) at SIGIR in Boston

Workshop on Search in Social Media (SSM 2009)

23 July 2009 in Boston, MA
Co-located with SIGIR 2009
http://ir.mathcs.emory.edu/SSM2009/

Social applications are the fastest growing segment of the web. They
establish new forums for content creation, allow people to connect to each
other and share information, and permit novel applications at the
intersection of people and

information. However, to date, social media has been primarily popular for
connecting people, not for finding information. While there has been
progress on searching particular kinds of social media, such as blogs,
search in others (e.g., Facebook, Myspace, of flickr) are not as well
understood.

The purpose of this workshop is to bring together information retrieval and
social media researchers to consider the following questions: How should we
search in social media? What are the needs of users, and models of those
needs, specific to social media search? What models make the most sense? How
does search interact with existing uses of social media? How can social
media search complement traditional web search? What new search paradigms
for information finding can be facilitated by social media?

The workshop will include invited talks by Abdur Chowdhury (Chief Scientist,
Twitter) and Joseph Konstan (University of Minnesota), as well as
contributed panel presentations, and a demo/poster session.

We solicit submissions on topics at the intersection of information finding
and social media, including, but not limited to:
* Searching blogs, tweets, and other textual social media.
* Searching within social networks, including expert finding.
* Searching Wikipedia discussions and revision histories.
* Searching online discussions, mailing lists, forums, and community
question answering sites.
* The role of human-powered and community question answering.
* Novel models of information finding and new search applications for
social media.
* The role of timeliness, authority, and accuracy in social media
search.
* Interaction between traditional web search and social media search.
* User needs assessments and task analysis for social media search.
* Usability studies of people using social media search tools.
* Interactions between searching and browsing in social media.
* Searching and exploiting folksonomies, tags, and tagged data.
* Spam and adversarial interactions in social media

Ideal papers may include late-breaking and novel research results, position
and vision papers discussing the role of search in social media, and
demonstrations of prototypes or working systems. The workshop notes will
not be formally published but will be distributed at the workshop, and will
be archived at the workshop website and/or Arxiv.

All submissions (research papers, position papers, and demo proposals) are
limited to a maximum of 4 pages. Submissions must be in PDF format and
follow the ACM Conference style guidelines
(http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates). The URL for
submissions is http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ssm2009

Important Dates
* June 16: submissions due
* June 29: notification of acceptance
* July 9: final papers due
* July 23: Workshop (full day)

Organizers
* Eugene Agichtein, Emory University
* Marti Hearst, University of California, Berkeley
* Ian Soboroff, NIST

Program Committee
Eytan Adar, University of Washington
Ed Chi, Xerox PARC
Abdur Chowdhury, Twitter
Natalie Glance, Google
Bernardo Huberman, HP Labs
Matthew Hurst, Microsoft Live Labs
Pranam Kolari, Yahoo! Labs
Craig Macdonald, University of Glasgow
Gilad Mishne, Yahoo! Labs
Doug Oard, University of Maryland
Iadh Ounis, University of Glasgow
Nitya Narasimhan, Motorola Labs
Maarten de Rijke, University of Amsterdam
Markus Strohmaier, TU Graz
Andrew Tomkins, Yahoo!

CFP: 4th International Workshop on Self-Organizing Systems (IWSOS 2009)

CALL FOR PAPERS

IWSOS 2009 - 4th International Workshop on Self-Organizing Systems
December 9-11, 2009, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
http://iwsos2009.ethz.ch

Workshop Scope

IWSOS 2009 is the fourth workshop in a series of annual workshops dedicated to self-organization in networks and networked systems. The necessity for and expected benefit of self-organization is caused by the growing scale, complexity, and heterogeneity of future networked systems, like the future Internet. Future networks will form complex networks integrating wired and wireless infrastructures with mobile ad-hoc, and sensor networks that could be spontaneously deployed in hostile environments, have a dynamic population and a potentially short life time. In spite of this, there will be stringent user requirements, such as high availability and real-time guarantees. Although self-organization is desirable for these kinds of networks, it is not yet clear to what extent self-organization can be exploited.

Research into networked systems started a few years ago to systematically investigate self-organization and has lead to a multitude of open research issues. The applicability of well-known self-organizing techniques to specific networks and networked systems is being investigated, as well as adaptations and novel approaches inspired by cooperation in nature and evolutionary dynamics, sociology, and game theory. Additionally, models originating from areas like control theory and complex systems research, are being applied to networked systems to analyze their controllability and behavior. Aspects of engineering self-organizing networked systems are studied that draw on approaches like programmable networks, and tools and frameworks for deploying, testing, and monitoring self-organizing networks. The role of self-organization in the future Internet and the impact on its architecture is an important topic, as well as the application of self-organization in future intelligent tra
nsportation systems and vehicular ad-hoc networks.

Building on the success of its predecessors, this workshop aims at bringing together leading international researchers to create a visionary forum for discussing the future of self-organization in networked systems. Topics include, but are not limited to the following.

Key Topics

* Self-organization and self-management
* Self-configuration and self-optimization
* Self-protection, -diagnosis, and -healing
* Self-organizing Networks and networked systems
* Autonomic networking principles and practice
* Control theory based models and approaches to self-organization
* Group-forming networks and techniques
* Programmable and cognitive networks as a basis for self-organization
* Visualization of network state
* Inspiring models of self-organization in nature and society (e.g., bio-inspired or based on game theory)
* Self-organization for Quality of Service
* Resilience, robustness and fault tolerance for networked systems
* Security in self-organizing networked systems
* Self-organization in peer-to-peer, sensor and ad-hoc networks
* Self-organization for ubiquitous computing
* Self-organization in heterogeneous network convergence
* Evolutionary principles of the (future, emerging) Internet
* Self-configuring place-and-play mobile networks
* Self-organizing vehicular ad-hoc networks
* Methods for configuration and management of large, complex networks
* Applications, e.g. the self-organizing home network
* Risks of self-organization
* The human in the loop of self-organizing networks

Paper Submission

IWSOS invites submission of manuscripts as full or short papers that present original research results, and that have not been previously published or are currently under review by another conference or journal. Any previous or simultaneous publication of related material should be explicitly noted in the submission. All papers must be submitted in PDF format. Submissions will be peer reviewed by at least three members of the international TPC and judged on originality, significance, interest, clarity, relevance, and correctness.

Full Papers

Submissions should be full-length papers up to 12 pages using the LNCS style, including all figures and references, and must include an abstract of 100-150 words.

Short Papers

Submissions should be position papers, challenging papers, and papers presenting first or late results up to 6 pages length (LNCS style, including all figures and references), and must include an abstract of 100-150 words.

Accepted Papers

The proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in their Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. At least one of the authors of each accepted paper must attend IWSOS 2009 to present the paper.

Posters and Demonstrations

To complement the main technical programme of IWSOS 2009, we are soliciting extended abstracts (up to two pages, LNCS style) that describe posters and demonstrations that will be presented at an informal session during the workshop. This session should provide a platform to present and discuss work-in-progress and demonstrations. The abstracts will be collected and made available at the event.

Important Dates

Full Paper submission deadline: July 10, 2009
Notification of acceptance: September 12, 2009

Short Paper submission deadline: August 14, 2009
Notification of acceptance: September 12, 2009

Poster submission deadline: October 16, 2009
Notification of acceptance: October 30, 2009

Camera-ready papers due: September 30, 2009
Early registration ends: October 6, 2009 (except for poster authors)

TEL-CoPs'09: 3rd International Workshop on Building Technology Enhanced Learning solutions for Communities of Practice

============================================================

CALL FOR PAPERS

TEL-CoPs'09: 3rd International Workshop on
Building Technology Enhanced Learning solutions for Communities of Practice

Theme: Linking individual with organizational learning in CoPs.
(Workshop URL: http://palette.cti.gr/workshops/telcops09.html)

held in conjunction with the 4th European Conference on
Technology Enhanced Learning Nice, France,
September 29, 2009 .
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INTRODUCTION

Communities of Practice (CoPs) have been widely recognized as effective environments to support learning among professionals, organisations and educational institutions. Collaborative learning is inherent in such communities, in that their members learn from each other by making their knowledge and practices explicit, sharing them with their peers, and reflecting on them. CoPs have several characteristics that distinguish them from formal organizations and learning situations. In fact, such communities are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, deepen their practical knowledge and expertise in the area under consideration, and interact on an ongoing basis. CoPs often emerge in the context of existing organisations or professional networks, in which people are already involved in common professional practices. Throughout their life, CoPs elaborate current (or develop new) practices, through debates and exploration of internal and external knowledge.

It has been recognized that web-based technologies could support the development of virtual CoPs. Consequently, more and more CoPs use virtual environments to support their activities. However, despite the rapidly increasing potential offered by technologies (including web-based platforms, wireless communications, mobile devices and extensive use of multimedia contents), recent research underline the lack of adequate scaffolding in the form of both technical supports and usage of the technology to express, represent and share practices, debate and reflect about the practices and about the life of the CoP, develop, reify and exploit knowledge inside and outside of the CoP, and facilitate engagement, participation and learning.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

The workshop focuses on current research trends in technology enhanced learning solutions that aim at addressing the multiplicity
and complexity of needs of Communities of Practice all along their lifecycle.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

* Software Engineering issues in tools supporting CoPs
* Multimedia authoring and reuse in CoPs
* Knowledge management services for CoPs
* Mediation services for CoPs
* Computer-supported collaborative argumentation
* Learning issues and CoPs
* User profiling and awareness issues in tools supporting CoPs
* Adaptability issues in tools supporting CoPs
* Visualization issues in tools supporting CoPs
* Web-based interactive applications
* Evaluation issues and case studies

SUBMISSIONS

Papers up to 10 and no less than 5 pages are solicited. All submissions should be original and not published elsewhere or
intended to be published during the review period. They must correspond to the EC-TEL conference format requirements, as they
are described at the conference's web site (http://www.ectel09.org/calls.papers.html) . All accepted papers must be presented
by one of the authors. Workshop attendees need to register for the main EC-TEL conference.

Submissions should be sent by e-mail to both Manolis Tzagarakis (tzagara@cti.gr) and Styliani Kleanthous
(stellak@comp.leeds.ac.uk).

IMPORTANT DATES

* June 25, 2009: workshop paper submission deadline
* July 5, 2009: notification of workshop paper acceptance
* July 15, 2009: workshop paper camera-ready submission

ORGANIZATION

Liliane Esnault, E.M. Lyon, France, esnault@em-lyon.com
Nikos Karacapilidis, University of Patras & RA Computer Technology Institute, Greece, karacap@cti.gr
Styliani Kleanthous, University of Leeds, UK, stellak@comp.leeds.ac.uk
Manolis Tzagarakis, RA Computer Technology Institute, Greece, tzagara@cti.gr

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Marco Bettoni, Swiss Distance Learning University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
Bernadette Charlier, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Amaury Daele, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Vania Dimitrova, University of Leeds, UK
Sandy El Helou, EPFL, Switzerland
Christina Evangelou, Informatics and Telematics Institute, Greece
Denis Gillet, EPFL, Switzerland
Dimitris Kalles, Hellenic Open University, Greece
Vassilis Komis, University of Patras, Greece
Thibaud Latour, CRP Henri Tudor, Luxembourg
Lydia Lau, University of Leeds, UK
Constantinos Mourlas, University of Athens, Greece
Vincent Quint, INRIA - Rhone Alpes, France
Cecile Roisin, University of Grenoble & INRIA - Rhone Alpes, France
Luc Vandenabeele, CRP Henri Tudor, Luxembourg
Christine Vanoirbeek, EPFL, Switzerland
Claus Atzenbeck, Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark

CFP: ACM DIS 2010 - Designing Interactive Systems Conference - Aarhus, Denmark, August 2010

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First Announcement and call for papers
DIS 2010
The ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

Aarhus, Denmark, August 16-20, 2010

Full paper deadline: February 15, 2010
More info: http://www.dis2010.org

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DIS 2010 invites researchers and practitioners engaged in designing
interactive systems to join five days of conference in Aarhus, August
16-20, 2010.

The conference will be a forum for debating and shaping the future of
interactive systems design research and practice.

We solicit submissions in the categories of full paper, short paper,
workshop, doctoral consortium and demonstration with theoretical,
methodological and experimental perspectives on:

Approaches to interaction: Aesthetic interaction - Experience design -
Engaging interaction - Kinaesthetic interaction - Usability.

Interaction technology: Mobile devises - Sensors - Huge and tiny
displays - Actuators - Smart materials.

Interaction design for: The home - Urban life and rural areas - Schools
- Museums - Digital art - Games and Play - News - Community building -
The workplace.

The design process: Tools and techniques - Materials and representations
- Innovation - Reflection on design processes - Management and business
aspects.

The DIS conference addresses design as an integrated activity spanning
technical, social, cognitive, organizational, and cultural aspects. The
conference brings together professionals and researchers from industry
as well as academia involved in the design of interactive systems
addressing design from a multiplicity of areas including:

Arts - Aesthetics - Architecture - Business - Computer science -
Cultural studies - Design Thinking - Engineering - Ethnography -
Interaction design - Product design - Psychology - Sociology.

Key dates 2010
--------------
Deadlines:
February 15: Full paper and Workshop
May 1: Short paper, Demonstration, Doctoral Consortium

August 16-17: Workshops
August 18-20: Conference

More info: http://www.dis2010.org

GRA: Recovery Act (ARRA) - Seismic Upgrades

http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=47735

Funding Opportunity Number:	09HQPA0021
Opportunity Category:	Other
Current Closing Date for Applications:	Jul 01, 2009
Funding Instrument Type:	Cooperative Agreement
Category of Funding Activity:	Other (see text field entitled "Explanation of Other Category of Funding Activity" for clarification)
Category Explanation:	Recovery Act (ARRA) - Seismic Upgrades
Expected Number of Awards:
Estimated Total Program Funding:	$5,000,000
Award Ceiling:	$0
Award Floor:	$0
CFDA Number(s):	15.807 -- Earthquake Hazards Program External Research and Monitoring Support
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:	No

Eligible Applicants

Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

Additional Information on Eligibility:

Colleges, Universities, profit-making, and nonprofit organizations, and State and Local Governments - This financial assistance opportunity is being issued under the authority of the Earthquake Hazards Program and addresses equipment replacement and upgrades to earthquake monitoring systems under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Eligible recipients must contribute to the upgrades to existing seismic network operations as part of the development of the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS)

Agency Name

U. S. Geological Survey

Description

USGS will support the replacement of outdated equipment used to monitor and report on earthquake activity in the U.S. and will improve the data centers and processing capabilities that generate earthquake information products and manage seismic data. These upgrades will further the development of the Advanced National Seismic System. Systems to be upgraded will include existing urban, regional and national seismic networks. Support for objectives to be completed by the resulting assistance awards will utilize funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The USGS will follow a two-track approach for submission of proposals for Program Announcement 09HQPA0021 under ARRA. Proposals shall be submitted electronically to a U.S. Geological Survey e-mail address and one hard copy of the entire proposal must be submitted to the U.S. Geological Survey, Office of Acquisition and Grants; details for both required tracks for submittal will be provided in the Program (Full) Announcement. Both the electronic copy and the paper copy must be received by the date and time set forth for receipt of proposals in the program announcement. Failure to submit either part by the date and time specified will eliminate the application from consideration. (For example, if the electronic copy is received by the established date and time but the paper copy is not, the application will not be considered - vice versa.) In addition, the electronic copy must be submitted to the only e-mail address identified in the Program (Full) Announcement. Electronic submittal to or through any other location or means will not be acceptable. The closing date set forth in this synopsis is an estimated date. The actual closing date and time will be specified in the Program Announcement. ARRA-SE0005A

GRA: SBIR E-learning for HAZMAT and Emergency Response (SBIR [R43/R44])

http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=47723

Funding Opportunity Number:	RFA-ES-09-006
Opportunity Category:	Discretionary
Current Closing Date for Applications:	Aug 03, 2009
Funding Instrument Type:	Grant
Category of Funding Activity:	Environment Health
Expected Number of Awards:
Estimated Total Program Funding:	$300,000
Award Ceiling:
Award Floor:
CFDA Number(s):	93.142 -- NIEHS Hazardous Waste Worker Health and Safety Training
Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement:	No

Eligible Applicants

Small businesses

Additional Information on Eligibility:

Agency Name

National Institutes of Health

Description

Purpose. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) solicits Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant applications from small business concerns (SBCs) that propose to further the development of Advanced Technology Training (ATT) Products for the health and safety training of hazardous materials (HAZMAT) workers, emergency responders, and skilled support personnel. These products would complement the goals and objectives of the Worker Education and Training Program (WETP). The major objective of the NIEHS/WETP is to prevent work related harm by assisting in the training of workers in how best to protect themselves and their communities from exposure to hazardous materials. There is a need to ensure that learning and training technologies are further developed, field tested and applied to real world situations. It is the intent of this solicitation to support the development of products to support e-collaboration, e-teaching, e-certification, and e-learning in safety and health training for workers engaged in hazardous materials response. The financial support for this initiative comes directly from NIEHS Worker Education and Training Branch SBIR funds. This FOA is for SBIR applications only. Mechanism of Support. This FOA will utilize the SBIR (R43/R44) grant mechanisms for Phase I, Phase II, and Fast-Track applications.

Link to Full Announcement

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-ES-09-006.html