Call for papers: Special Issue on The family and communication technologies
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
New communication technologies are increasingly being used in family and social contexts to support and extend relationships. Yet the social aspects of these communication technologies and impact upon family life are often overlooked by researchers and designers keen to create task-based products.
With this in mind we feel that attention should now focus on the social aspects of communication technologies within the family if we are to better understand how and why people are using and adapting communication technologies to suit their family and social lives. Questions naturally arise related to social and moral values, trust, privacy, disclosure, exclusion, status within the home and also the impact upon the home/work/leisure divide. We want to focus on issues of context, purpose and benefit to see if we can build up a richer, more detailed account of real technology usage and impact upon family life.
ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION INCLUDE:
1) The need to understand how current technology use impacts upon family life. What are the positive and negative aspects of use?
2) What kinds of communication technologies are people using and why?
3) What factors influence take-up and continued use of communication technologies?
4) What impact do communication technologies have upon the familyıs social and moral values?
5) Evidence and examples of the benefits of communication technologies in supporting and increasing social interactions within the family.
6) How do we empirically and ethically investigate technology use within the family?
7) Will pervasive or ubiquitous systems affect family communication?
This Special Issue seeks to foster a scientific understanding of how communication technologies impact upon family life. The purpose is to provide a timely review of research efforts on the topic. Submissions encouraged are:
- Theoretical papers dealing with descriptive or explanatory models of the impact and use of communication technologies within the family
- Methodological papers concentrating on how to analyze the use of communication technologies within the family and how to discover the structure of user behaviour
- Empirical papers may use either qualitative or quantitative techniques
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- The role of communication technologies used within the family
- Social and cultural aspects of the family and communication technologies
- Psychological resources and limitations of family communication
- Conceptual frameworks for understanding how communication technologies impact upon family life
- Lessons from field trials on the nature of communication technologies for family use
- Fundamental methods and principles of user research in dealing with communication technologies used in family contexts
- The impact of pervasive or ubiquitous technologies on family communication
Co-Editors
Linda Little, PACT Lab, Northumbria University,
email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Elizabeth Sillence, PACT Lab, Northumbria University,
email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Abigail Sellen, Microsoft's Cambridge Lab, Microsoft UK,
email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Alex Taylor, Microsoft's Cambridge Lab, Microsoft UK,
email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Submissions
Manuscripts should not exceed 8000 words. Papers should be submitted according to the IJHCS Guide for authors, and will be refereed in the standard way. All manuscripts should be submitted online. The IJHCS Guide for authors and online submission are available at www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhcs<http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhcs>. To submit to the Special Issue, please select Article Type SI: Family (eds. Little et al.)ıı and clearly state in the Enter Commentsıı section that the paper is intended for the The family and communication technologies Special Issue being edited by Linda Little, Elizabeth Sillence, Abigail Sellen and Alex Taylor.
If you are a first time user of the journalıs online submission tool, you will have to register yourself as an author on the system. If you have any problems with the system please contact Fred Kop, Journal Manager, at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
Important dates
Target publication date: February 2009
Timeline:
September 2007, Call for papers
30 January 2008, 1st Submission deadline
30 April 2008, Notification of 1st review
30 June 2008, 2nd Submission
30 September 2008, Final notification
30 October 2008, Final revisions due
---------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send an empty email to
mailto:[log in to unmask]
For further details of CHI lists see http://sigchi.org/listserv
---------------------------------------------------------------
|