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CHI 09 workshop: Call for Participation
Social Mediating Technologies: Developing the Research Agenda

Are you interested in /researching Social Networking Sites, e-Communities, other collaborative Internet Technologies ? Do you want to discuss the complex reasons why these technologies are a run away success with leaders in the field ? If so read on..

The popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, and online communities like Wikipedia and Flickr, has launched a debate about the social impact of these technologies. This workshop will review the current state of the art in social networking technologies and develop a deeper, theory-based understanding of these socio-technicalphenomena.

Workshop Goals

This workshop will survey, discuss and synthesise current knowledge on Social Mediating Technologies (SMTs) usage to develop a research agenda for future studies. It will also provide a forum for researchers from academia and industry to exchange insights into how these technologies are being used in society and industrial organisations.

1. to bring together researchers in academia and industry, and from diverse backgrounds (psychology, sociology, computer science, etc.) who are interested in understanding the impact of social mediating technologies;
2. to create a road map for future research directions.

The immediate goals are to survey current knowledge of SMT research and develop a deeper understanding of these phenomena from both a social and technological perspective. The workshop aims to develop a road map of issues to conceptualise the SMT research space and set the future research agenda in this field, to look beyond the current investigations and descriptive studies to more theory-led research.

Participation- Submissions

To participate please submit either a position paper (1,500-2,000 words) or an extended paper (up to 8,000 words) reporting more substantial research, on the following topics:

• Empirical and ethnographic studies into the use of social-mediating technologies (e.g. e-communities, SNS, CMC sites).
• Social network analysis in social mediating technologies.
• Comparative surveys of use of social technologies, ranging from e-mail to Internet SNS.
• Computational models and simulations of social technologies.
• Critical evaluations of social technologies, design affordances, usability problems, etc.
• Theories, models and frameworks of technology-mediated socialisation.

Send submissions to Alistair Sutcliffe as Word or PDF attachments: ags@man.ac.uk by the end of 23rd October 2008, (whatever your time zone). – let us know if you need more time

Key Questions

Research questions which could be addressed range from theoretical connections to pragmatic analyses of use and assessment of the design features of current technologies, as well as looking forward to the next generation of SMTs:

• How do SMTs foster the formation of new relationships, or is most usage simply maintenance of existing face-to-face relationships?
• How do SMTs contribute to the identity of communities and groups?
• Do people change their behaviour online? Evidence suggests that people are less security-conscious online, so the deeper question is, why?
• How good are people at detecting bogus usage in social technologies, e.g. advertising; alternatively, do they see advertising as legitimate?
• Which design features of SMTs afford the formation and maintenance of relationships?
• Which design features of SMTs help group and community identity, and maintenance of diaspora relationships?

For more details see workshop web site

Organisers

Alistair Sutcliffe, University of Manchester
Manchester, UK
ags@man.ac.uk

Victor M. Gonzalez, University of Manchester
Manchester, UK
victor.gonzalez@mbs.ac.uk

Robert Kraut
Human Computer Interaction Laboratory
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA, USA
robert.kraut@cmu.edu

Program panel (provisional)

John Carroll, IST, Penn State University, USA
Nicole Ellison, Michigan State University, USA
Judith Donath, Media Lab, MIT
Marcus Foth, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia
Cameron Marlow, FaceBook, USA
Susan O’Donnell, NRC IIT, Canada
May Beth Rosson, IST, Penn State University, USA

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