(Apologies for cross-posting)


CALL FOR PAPERS
?	Deadline for paper proposals: 1st of August, 07
?	Feedback to proposal authors: 15th of September, 07
?	Full paper submission deadline: 1st of December 07

Journal of Computers in Human Behavior - Special issue:
 "Future networked interactive media systems and services for the new-senior communities: enabling elderly users to create and share self authored multimedia content".

OBJECTIVE
This Special issue looks at understanding crucial design issues of incoming scenarios of pervasive networked systems for elderly people. These systems should seek to improve elderly peoples' access to social services, to facilitate social contacts as well as access to context-based infotainment and entertainment, to facilitate social participation and independent living, in sum, to improve the welfare and quality of life for the industrialized world aging society and reducing the digital divide. More specifically this special issue addresses three major obstacles that must be overcome for elderly citizens to take advantage of these new technological developments: 1) lack of methods and tools to identify elderly users requirements for a social and creative media usage, 2) lack of knowledge in understanding the factors motivating usage of such applications as well as its social impact on senior citizens and 3) the complexity of multimodal user interfaces in networked applications.

BACKGROUND
Today, the traditional barriers between mainstream and homemade media are dissolving. In particularly younger and professional users, use networked media applications for new types of social participation through content creation and content sharing in networked interactive media services such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. These new communities support the human evolvement from being a passive consumer of mainstream media content to a user taking an active role in the media chain. This is also triggered by the increasingly availability of broadband, digital recording devices as well as display and rendering devices. The end-users will be both the largest content producers and consumers of the future. 

A big challenge when researching this new media landscape is to investigate how these non-professional, an in particular senior users can be supported in (co-)creating and sharing media content. The lack of senior users calls for a better understanding of elderly users’ requirements in how they can take a active role in the media chain. .

It is, well known that the elderly citizens pose a particular challenge to technology developers as they are often disaffected from the technical advance and unaware of the potential benefit that ICT can have on their lives. The challenge is how to enable elderly people to play an active part in the Information Society and at the same time, integrate and enhance the new communities of senior citizens arising all over the world. 

Elderly people, as an increasingly major group in society, traditionally have, in retirement, more time for leisure activities and as a result, look for new quality alternatives for enriching their free time. Elderly people in industrialized countries live longer; they have a higher cultural background than the past generations and have more and more interests to enrich their daily lives (they enjoy traveling, learning, sharing experiences, practicing sports, etc). Several elderly people moves to typical holiday resorts when they retire. It is therefore important to identify emerging nomadic cultures, lifestyles of elderly people and related socio-cultural trends as a relevant factor in ‘anticipating their future needs and expectations’ and find solutions through new developments of social networked media systems. New pervasive media applications or online communities may increase and enrich leisure time and social participation, and on the other hand, can prove to be a powerful application when used for communication in-between generations as well as and prevention of social isolation and loneliness.

TARGET AUDIENCE
The potential contributors to this special issue will be researchers as well as practitioners involved in this particular area and those related to the design of pervasive interactive multimedia system. Those who are interested in theoretical or practical aspects, as well as those that can present case studies, or technical solutions in the area can benefit from the initiative too. In particular, Educators, and Researchers in HCI, managers of HCI projects working in the mobile entertainment, leisure, healthcare and government industry (telecom companies, device manufacturers, service providers, game designers, etc.); new media trends sociologists and anthropologists, new media journalists, human factors practitioners, information architects, industrial designers and interface evaluators.

RECCOMENDED TOPICS INCLUDE, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE FOLLOWING:
In particular we consider it would be particularly interesting to focus in aspects that have not traditionally been central to Human-Computer interaction, but are now emerging as relevant and important factors in the design of pervasive interactive multimedia systems for elder users. Topics of interest include, but not limited to:

•       New experimental research methods s (e.g. cultural and mobile probes, Living labs) for identification of requirements of elderly users’ content creation and content sharing
•       Crucial user experience issues related to the support social participation and mobility through mobile devices and home media applications for the elderly people.
•       Studies of new technological solutions that support, motivate and encourage elderly people towards the creation and sharing of personal, self authored content and the convergence between personal communication and content.
•       Novel interfaces for elderly people for such as home based ambient displays advanced communication scenarios using a Participatory Design and user-centred approach that focus on users' cultural, social, behavioral and ergonomic backgrounds.
•       Applications for socialization, to allow the elderly people to reinforce and extend their social context, sustaining, at the same time, independent living
•       Novel ambient services and media networked applications that support existing and emerging social patterns among elderly people.
•       Suitable methodologies and techniques to prospect feasible and relevant user scenarios and design consequently appropriate application/s intersecting between mobile devices, PCs, ambient technologies and iTV.
•       Usability and design for all evaluation issues in these new applications (eg. in-situ based evaluation techniques and heuristic evaluation).

IMPORTANT DATES:

-- Deadline for paper proposals: 1st of August, 07
-- Feedback to proposal authors: 15th of September, 07
-- Full paper submission deadline: 1st of December 07

-- Referee, reviews: November- 1st February 2008
-- Meta reviews and feedback to authors: 22nd February 2008
-- New paper iteration, submission revised papers: 2nd May 2008
-- Proofreading final submissions, 4th July 2008
-- Publishing, October 2008

PROPOSALS:

Please submit a 300-500 word proposal* for your paper to both editors by 6th July. A plain text abstract in email is preferred; otherwise, please attach a document in either PDF or MS Word format. If you cannot meet this deadline, please feel free to contact the Special Issue Editors to discuss your plans:

Anxo Cereijo Roibás [[log in to unmask]] and  
Petter Bae Brandtzæg [ [log in to unmask]]

*Note that proposals are not a prerequisite for submitting a paper, but are strongly preferred, as they will help us shape the special issue and help you plan your paper. If you have missed the proposal submission deadline, please contact us to let us know you intend to submit a paper.

PAPER SUBMISION:

Authors should submit an electronic copy (preferably in MS Word or PDF formats) by email, with full contact details by 1st of August 2007, to

Anxo Cereijo Roibás [[log in to unmask]] and  
Petter Bae Brandtzæg [ [log in to unmask]]

Information about submissions to Computers in Human Behavior can be found at the journal's web site:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/759/authorinstructions. Submissions should in the journal style, which is best understood by looking at a recent issue of Computers in Human Behavior. 

EDITORS:

Dr. Anxo Cereijo Roibás
Petter Bae Brandtzæg


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