[Siguse-l] Call for 7th SIG USE Symposium & ASIST AM07

[Erdelez, Sanda]

7th Annual Research Symposium 
Special Interest Group on Information Needs, Seeking, and Use (SIG USE)
of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T)

Mobility and Social Networks in Information Behavior
Saturday, October 20, 2007, 1-6 p.m., Hyatt Regency, Milwaukee, WI

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Deadline: August 1, 2007

Searching WebMD, checking stock portfolios, meeting up through
dodgeball.com, chatting with friends on MySpace, playing online games,
sharing photos, making plane reservations, paying bills, and
shopping-are all information-intensive activities that can occur outside
traditional locales due to mobile technologies.  Beyond employing
hi-tech tools, mobility can also involve one's social networks-the
people with whom one is connected and shares information and other
resources.  The 2007 SIG-USE Symposium will engage in the discussion of
mobility and social networks as increasingly salient and important
aspects of information behavior (IB) in an effort to consolidate
research approaches in these areas.

Following keynote presentations by Dr. Marc Smith (Senior Researcher,
Microsoft Research) and Dr. Caroline Haythornthwaite (Associate
Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Symposium
participants will discuss key studies and current research, and identify
strengths and limitations for understanding how mobility and social
network factors influence IB. The Symposium will follow a seminar format
focusing on participant discussion.

Researchers and professionals interested in participating should submit
a 1-page position paper (about 300 words) reflecting upon critical
questions for IB research on the conjunction of mobility and social
networking. Experienced researchers can share information about their
current research, while those new to the field should describe their
research or professional interests related to the Symposium theme.
Potential areas include: 
* Types of mobility (e.g., technological tools, social, institutional)
and how they pertain to IB;
* Theoretical approaches to studying IB dimensions of mobility and
social networking 
* Methodological approaches to studying mobility and social networking
from IB perspective 
* Findings from empirical work on mobility and social networking within
specific populations or environmental contexts.

Papers must be emailed to IBSymposium at gmail.com by August 1, 2007.
Applicants will be notified by September 1. Participants must register
with ASIS&T for the Symposium. While formal papers will not be expected,
the participants' position papers will be posted on the SIG USE website
(www.asis.org/SIG/SIGUSE/) prior to the Symposium and will be used to
organize small-group discussions.   

Symposium Organizers:

Theresa Anderson, Information and Knowledge Management Program, Faculty
of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney
(Theresa.Anderson at uts.edu.au)

Sanda Erdelez, School of Information Science & Learning Technologies,
University of Missouri-Columbia (sanda at missouri.edu) 
 
Karen E. Fisher, The Information School of the University of Washington
(fisher at u.washington.edu) 

Fee: 
Members $80, non-members $95, before Sept. 16
Members $90, non-members $105, after Sept. 16
SIG USE members get an additional $10 off


Dr. Sanda Erdelez
Associate Professor
School of Information Science and Learning Technologies
University of Missouri -- Columbia
303 Townsend Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
tel. 573-882-5088
fax. 573-884-4944
erdelezs at missouri.edu