[Asis-l] CFP: 2010 SIG-SI and SIG-USE Joint Full-Day Workshop

[Rieh, Soo Young]

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
2010 SIG-SI AND SIG-USE
JOINT FULL-DAY WORKSHOP
OCTOBER 27, 2010
PITTSBURGH, PA

We are sending this call out even though the ASIST deadline for workshop proposals isn't until May 21.  SIG-SI and SIG-USE hope and expect that this workshop proposal will be accepted for the post-conference workshop roster since it is being jointly co-sponsored and proposed.  We wanted to alert you early and encourage you to put your participation in this workshop on your ASIST 2010 agenda.  Acceptance of the workshop for the ASIST program is, of course, the decision of the ASIST 2010 Conference Program Committee so we do not have a guarantee.  We'll keep you posted.   Final program acceptances for workshops is June 28 and, assuming acceptance, we will immediately send a second announcement with full details.

Given that our workshop makes it onto the program, if you want to respond to this call for participation with a "concept proposal paper", the workshop description, deadline and specifications follow below.  So you can put this potential workshop deadline in context, here's the roster of ASIST deadlines:
May 31 - paper, panel, and workshop proposals due
June 28 - notification of acceptance
August 2 - final copy due

July 16 - poster, media, and interactive program proposals due
August 2- notification of acceptance
August 9 - final copy due

And, here's deadline for submitting a concept proposal paper for this SIG-SI and SIG-USE workshop:
(see instructions below)
September 1 -   submit proposal as specified below
September 10 - posting of all accepted proposals to workshop website
                                (Jeanine Williamson, workshop webmaster)

WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE TALKING ABOUT:
INFO NEEDS, SEEKING AND USE;
KEY CONCEPTS, CONVERGENCES AND DIVERGENCES --
The differences that definitions make in core concepts

A ONE-DAY WORKSHOP CO-SPONSORED BY:

6th ANNUAL SIG-SI                                                                                         10th ANNUAL SIG-USE
RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM                                and                                        RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
Special Interest Group                                                                                   Special Interest Group
Social Informatics                                                                                             Information Needs, Seeking & Use

WORKSHOP FOCUS:
Many commentators observing the thrust of interests in inter-disciplinarity, inter-perspectivity, and collaborative effort in research have noted among the many struggles such enterprises face (e.g. institutional rigidities, isolated disciplines, incompatible reward structures) the central challenges of communication barriers.  Central to these challenges is the problem of meaning -- what are people "meaning" when they speak.  In research this challenge is most often manifested by the efforts to define core concepts that run about in various disguises and cloaks.  Sometimes, concepts with the same label actually have radically different definitions, or are applied in radically different contexts that imply meaning changes.  Sometime concepts with different labels actually are defined similarly and this too often passes unnoticed.  A primary example impacting research in LIS:  information systems researchers examine information requirements while information behavior researchers examine information needs, but often the research lens is pointing to the same problems.

The purpose of this working symposium is to assist ourselves and others in the SIG-SI and SIG-USE communities in moving beyond trying to enclose concepts by classifying their essential properties, relations with other concepts, and functionalities.  It's important, we think, to reach for awareness of the assumed but rarely stated explicitly hidden patterns of meaning in research texts.  These include, for example, how concept labels and definitions have been tied to implied patterns of actions and events - and how these have been adopted, and adapted.  Information needs, seeking and use studies often adopt terms from multiple literatures.  Unfortunately the implied analogies across literatures become twisted because their meanings, from a communication standpoint, are always dependent on the background knowledge and experience of individual authors.  These labeling and definitional differences impact in turn our understandings of the meanings and purposes of theorizing, model-building, and uses of paradigms.  Between our different sub-communities and discourses, we so easily appear to be talking about the "same" phenomena when in actuality too often our meaning worlds barely touch.

The purpose of this workshop is to devote the creative intellectual energies of the SIG-USE and SIG-SI communities to these issues -- to, in essence, take a break from research business as usual to meta-communicate with each other about the definitional challenges in user oriented studies of information technology use and information needs, seeking, and use.  Hopefully participants will go away enriched by the discussions and with new, perhaps even unlikely, network connections.  The intent is not to homogenize our understandings so we can zero in on presumably correct concepts and definitions.  Rather, the intent is to enrich our understandings and get a fuller picture of the reasons behind the convergences and divergences between us.  Because the workshop is designed as a working session we ask that all participants commit themselves to the full day's schedule.  Participants are welcome in a variety of roles.  Those who want to participate most actively are asked to submit concept proposal papers (see below).  Discussion groups will be organized focusing on these submitted proposals, grouping similar or related concepts.  Group memberships and facilitators will be selected based on submitted proposals.  Others can sign up for the workshop as observer-participants.  Group schedules will invite observations from observer-participants in a special participation round.

TIME SCHEDULE:
08:30 am - Opening remarks, opening keynoter panel
09:30 am - Concept group meetings (no official break, refreshments available)
12:00 pm - Lunch
01:15 pm - Concept group facilitator reports
02:30 pm - Break
02:45 pm - Brief "take-away" comments from opening panelists
03:45 pm - Closing

SPECIAL NOTICE:  The annual SIG-USE awards ceremony and paper presentation by the recipient of the Elfreda A. Chatman Research Proposal Award will take place in a special break-out location from 12:30 - 1:00 pm.  All symposium participants will be cordially invited to attend.

OPENING KEYNOTER PANEL
David Bawden, City University, London, UK,  db at soi.city.ac.uk
Charles Cole, McGill University, Montreal, Canada,  charles.cole at mcgill.ca
Brenda Dervin, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA,  dervin.1 at osu.edu
Soo Young Rieh, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA,  rieh at umich.edu
Howard Rosenbaum, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA, hrosenba at indiana.edu
Steve Sawyer, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA, ssawyer at syr.edu
Reijo Savolainen, Tampere University, FINLAND,  reijo.savolainen at uta.fi
Michael Olsson, Queens University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, michael.olsson at uts.edu.au
Chris Urquhart, Aberystwyth University, UK,  ahcjurquhart at btinternet.com

Keynoter panelists will speak for 5-6 minutes on:  "Why we need to attend to the question:  'What in the world are we talking about?' "  Keynoters will also serve as observers of group discussions in preparation for their brief take-away comments at the end of the workshop day.

CALL FOR CONCEPT PROPOSAL PAPERS
Those who wish to participate most actively are asked to submit a brief (maximum 1200 words) paper in which they propose a core concept that they feel we should focus on.  The proposed concept may show itself in the literature (as the proposer interprets the literatures relevant to him/her)
a) under different names but aiming for the "same" meaning
and/or
b) under the same name but aiming for "different" meanings.

To submit a concept paper proposal, the requirements are as follows:
- This is to be a think piece and commentary, not a research paper.  Please do not use citations in text.  Please do not use direct or indirect quotes from others.  Your task is to present YOUR THINKING.
- 1200 words or less
- Submit as a pdf document
- Put your name in the upper right hand corner
- Name your file as follows:  2010_SI_USEworkshop_yourlastname_concept_name.pdf
                e.g.        2010_SI-USEworkshop_sullivan_info_needs.pdf
                e.g.        2010_SI-USEworkshop_andrews_relevance.pdf
- Use these headers to organize your comments
PROPOSED CONCEPT, THE NAME I KNOW IT BY BEST:
OTHER NAMES I HAVE SEEN USED TO LABEL IT:
MY FAVORITE DEFINITION FOR THE CONCEPT:
MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONCEPT'S HISTORY:
WHERE I SEE PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS CONVERGING:
WHERE I SEE PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS DIVERGING:
MY UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR THESE DIFFERENCES:
REFERENCES I FOUND HELPFUL:  (no more than 2-3)

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING CONCEPT PROPOSAL PAPERS:
September 1, 2010, a pdf file to each of following:
dervin.1 at osu.edu  (Brenda Dervin, workshop co-coordinator)
hrosenba at indiana.edu (Howard Rosenbaum, workshop co-coordinator)
ahcjurquhart at btinternet.com (Chris Urquhart, workshop co-coordinator)
jwilliamson at utk.edu (Jeanine Williamson, workshop wiki design and management)

FEES:   Because this is a preliminary announcement of a workshop that has not yet been formally accepted by ASIST for the 2010 program (although we expect it will be accepted), we cannot yet negotiate a fee with ASIST headquarters.  However, the fee will be in line with those for past SIG symposia and will include a 2 light snack breaks and a light lunch.

WORKSHOP COORDINATORS:
Brenda Dervin, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA,  dervin.1 at osu.edu
Howard Rosenbaum, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA, hrosenba at indiana.edu
Chris Urquhart, Aberystwyth University, UK, ahcjurquhart at btinternet.com
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