PAPERS DUE 14 FEBRUARY 2000!! ---------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS International Conference on CULTURAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION (CATaC'00) Conference Theme: Cultural Collisions and Creative Interferences in the Global Village 12-15 July 2000, Perth, Australia http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac00/ http://www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/catac00 Computer-mediated communication networks, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web, promise to realise the utopian vision of an electronic global village. But efforts to diffuse CMC technologies globally, especially in Asia and among indigenous peoples in Africa, Australia and the United States, have demonstrated that CMC technologies are neither culturally neutral nor communicatively transparent. Rather, diverse cultural attitudes towards technology and communication - those embedded in current CMC technologies, and those shaping the beliefs and behaviours of potential users - often collide. This biennial conference series aims to provide an international forum for the presentation and discussion of cutting-edge research on how diverse cultural attitudes shape the implementation and use of information and communication technologies. The first conference in the series was held in London in 1998. For an overview of the themes and presentations of CATaC'98 and links to the papers, see http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac98/01_ess.html. Original full papers (especially those which connect theoretical frameworks with specific examples of cultural values, practices, etc.) and short papers (e.g. describing current research projects and preliminary results) are invited. Papers should articulate the connections between specific cultural values as well as current and/or possible future communicative practices involving information and communication technologies. We seek papers which, taken together, will help readers, researchers, and practitioners of computer-mediated communication - especially in the service of "electronic democracy" - better understand the role of diverse cultural attitudes as hindering and/or furthering the implementation of global computer communications systems. Topics of particular interested include but are not limited to: - Communicative attitudes and practices in diverse industrialised countries. - Communicative attitudes and practices in industrialising countries and marginalised communities. - Impact of new communication technologies on local and indigenous languages and cultures. - Politics of the electronic global village in democratising or preserving hierarchy. - East/West cultural attitudes and communicative practices. - Role of gender in cultural expectations regarding appropriate communicative behaviours. - Ethical issues related to new technologies, and their impact on culture and communication behaviours. - Legal implications of communication and technology. SUBMISSION All submissions will be peer reviewed by an international panel of scholars and researchers. There will be the opportunity for selected papers to appear in special issues of journals and a book. CATaC'98 papers, for example, appeared in the Electronic Journal of Communication/La Revue Electronique de Communication (Vol.8, Nos.3-4, 1998) and will appear in the AI and Society Journal and Javnost (Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture. Initial submissions are to be emailed to [log in to unmask] as an attachment (Word, HTML, PDF). Submission of a paper implies that it has not been submitted or published elsewhere. At least one author of each accepted paper is expected to present the paper at the conference. Important Dates: * Full papers 14 February 2000 * Short papers 28 February 2000 * Notification of acceptance 27 March 2000 * Final formatted papers 17 April 2000 PROGRAM Highlights of the conference program include: - discussion forums following technical sessions to focus on research objectives and progress - public lecture - public panels with panelists drawn from conference participants - reception in an art gallery featuring a didgeridoo player - conference dinner at a winery - pre-conference tour and post-conference safari For more information, see the conference web site. SUBSIDIES Funding is being sought by the Committee to partially subsidise travel expenses for students and scholars from developing countries. Please contact the Co-Chairs if you wish to apply for a subsidy in the event that funds are available. VENUE The venue is the Tradewinds Hotel, Fremantle, Western Australia, located on the Swan River. Fremantle, an atmospheric port of convict-constructed buildings and great pubs, is approximately 20km west of Perth. Perth was founded in 1829 and is the sunniest capital in Australia, and is the most isolated capital in the world. It has a Mediterranean climate, with warm to hot summers and cool winters. The average winter maximum temperature (June-August) is 20C (~70F). CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS Charles Ess, Drury College, USA, [log in to unmask] Fay Sudweeks, Murdoch University, Australia, [log in to unmask] CONFERENCE VICE-CHAIRS Krishna Sen, Murdoch University, Australia Andrew Turk, Murdoch University, Australia CONFERENCE MANAGER Moira Dawe, Murdoch University, [log in to unmask] ORGANISING COMMITTEE Matthew Allen, Curtin University of Technology Steve Benson, Edith Cowan University John Gammack, Murdoch University Fiona MacMillan, Murdoch University Richard Thomas, University of Western Australia Kathryn Trees, Murdoch University ADVISORY BOARD Tom Addison, Witwatersrand University, South Africa Phil Agre, University of California San Diego, USA Peng Hwa Ang, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore Michael Dahan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Donald Day, Towson University, USA Ken Friedman, Norwegian School of Management, Norway Pat Hall, Open University, UK Lorna Heaton, University of New Mexico, USA Soraj Hongladarom, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand Herbert Hrachovec, University of Vienna, Austria Lawrie Hunter, Kochi University of Technology, Japan Steve Jones, University of Illinois Chicago, USA Willard McCarty, Kings College London, UK Lucienne Rey, Swiss Office of Technology Assessment, Switzerland Cyd Strickland, The Fielding Institute, USA Diane Witmer, University of California Fullerton, USA ----------------------- Fay Sudweeks Senior Lecturer in Information Systems School of Information Technology Murdoch University WA 6150 Australia +61-8-9360-2364 (o) +61-8-9360-2941 (f) [log in to unmask] www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks