[Sigtis-l] SIG SI update

[KRISTIN R ESCHENFELDER]

Greetings SIG social informatics members (formerly SIG-TIS)

This email includes a summary of the SIG meeting at the ASIST 05
conference and it also includes planning information related to the
ASIST 06 conference.  Specific items include:

1. The SIG name change 
2. ASIST 06 panel proposals
3. ASIST 06 pre-conference social informatics mini-conference
4. ASIST 06 pre-conference ethnography workshop
5. Dlist e-repository initiative
6. SIG funds

1. Name change: The proposal to change the name of the SIG was
unanimously passed by the SIG council.  The SIG name is now officially
SIG social informatics or SIG-SI.  The name is already changed on SIG
web site.  The name of the listserv will remain the same for the time
being (mostly due to inertia)

2. 06 Panels: Will all SIG members interested in submitting an “SI”
panel please send me an email letting me know your idea?  The officers
need to keep track of which panels the SIG is sponsoring.  Currently, I
have no complete panel proposals from any SIG SI members.  At the SIG
meeting, attendees discussed the following ideas for panels for ASIST 06
Austin, but it isn’t clear if they are still planning on submitting
proposals:

KM & global information problems (Davenport)
Emergency/disaster information  (other SIGs)
Interpretation and information systems (Li)
Online communities (Hara)
Information lifecycles and representation (Anderson)
Social aspects of digital libraries (Eschenfelder – SIG DL)

If you have research or practical experience related to one of these
panel ideas, and you are interested in helping out, please email me or
the researcher named in parenthesis to help further the idea.

The international SIG (Kendra Albright) has asked us to cosponsor a
panel on AIDS information management in Uganda.  She is hoping to get
several practitioners from Uganda to come over and talk about past
programs and ongoing programs to distribute disease information to the
public.  If anyone has an expertise in this area that they would like to
contribute please contact me or Kendra directly.  

3. 06 Miniconference: Many meeting attendees expressed interest in a one
half day pre-conference mini-conference emphasizing social aspects of
information systems and information.  The purpose of the mini-conference
would be to present and learn about currently SI research in progress,
and get early feedback on research ideas.  

Unlike our past SI workshop, this mini-conference will be run like a
conference session with each attendee who submits a paper briefly
presenting and taking questions.  Attendees would be required to submit
a 2-3 page paper sometime in the fall and also provide constructive
feedback on another attendee’s paper.  This feedback process will be
managed through the dLIST repository (Eschenfelder)

4. 06 Ethnography workshop: There was a call for a related one half day
workshop on “big E” and “little e” ethnography – open to all members.  
I need someone else to take the lead on writing the proposal for this
and recruiting presenters.  I’ll help make all the scheduling & room
arrangements.  

5. Current SI research RSS feed: I’d like to increase awareness of
ongoing research among SI scholars by setting up a monthly  RSS feed of
“new SI research” and possibly a monthly email alert that would include
new SI titles, author names and keywords.   We talked about this at the
SIG meeting & attendees agreed to start the ball rolling by submitting
abstracts, preprints or research in progress.   The RSS feed is not yet
ready, but I am working with the folks from DLIST to set it up.

To get your research included in the planned RSS feed , you will need to
submit your paper/abstract to DLIST at http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/. 
DLIST is the Digital Library of Information Science and Technology, an
e-print archive infrastructure out of University of Arizona run by Anita
Coleman.  Be sure to tag your paper using “social informatics” as one of
the controlled vocabulary key words.  

I'll let everyone know when the RSS feed and/or email alert is up and
running.  It may take a few months.
 
6.  Money: We found out at the SIG cabinet meeting that the SIG can
receive up to $2 per official (paying) member per year.  This means SIG
SI has about $350 a year available.  Proposals for what to do with that
money is welcome.  Some SIGs use it to fund student travel awards, best
poster competitions, or to fund mini-conferences.

Thanks & please get back to us with your ideas for the 06 conference!

Kristin Eschenfelder, Noriko Hara, Bin Li
SIG SI officers


Kristin Eschenfelder
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
eschenfelder at wisc.edu
1-608-263-2105
http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~kreschen