[SIGCIS-Members] Social Sudies of Inormation and the iConfernce

[Thomas Haigh]

Hello SIGCIS people,

 

This message will be of interest to a subset of you, but I think it's worth
sending anyway. It's about a chance to participate in a new community and an
upcoming conference workshop.

 

Some background. These is such a thing as an "iSchool." The "I" is for
"information." Most of them used to be library schools, but now they do
things to do with computers as well/instead of things to do with libraries.
The schools vary widely, but they have an organization and a conference.
It's called the "iConfernce."

 

Quite a few SIGCIS people, including Bill Aspray, Nathan Ensmenger, Eden
Medina, Paul Edwards, Greg Downey, Dave Stearns, and me find ourselves
employed in iSchools. History itself is marginal, at best, in most of these
schools but STS is somewhat better established and easier to position on the
curriculum. Given the job market, people with STS training have also been
going to work in iSchools. However, STS-like perspectives are spread over
many different sub communities with names like "social informatics," "values
in design," "information policy," "internet studies" whose currency varies
from school to school.

 

My experience with SIGCIS has made me realize the value that simple tools,
such as a listserv and syllabus repository, can have for a scattered
community. I'd also seen people looking to send messages to the iSchool STS
community making their own long lists of email names, because there is no
established list that reaches this group.

 

Thus was born www.socialstudiesof.info, which (as I can admit here among
friends) is basically trying to repeat some of the things that more or less
worked with SIGCIS over the past eight years to bring together the
metacommunity of people with STS interest in iSchools. If you find this
project interesting I encourage you to sign up, submit your syllabi, spread
the word, etc.

 

More specifically, and as explained in the message below, the iConference is
in Berlin next March. Early registration runs out on Dec 15. I'm the lead
organizer of a full day workshop there on "Exploring the Social Studies of
Information." It's going to be informal and participatory, but if you're
interested or need this for travel money I can probably find a spot for you
on a roundtable or discussion group somewhere on the program.

 

I'd love to see a strong showing at the workshop from this community, and a
renewed attempt (in this niche at least) of finding ways to integrate
history of computing with STS and with the broader iSchool concept of
"information history."

 

Best wishes,



Tom

 

 

 

From: Thomas Haigh [mailto:thaigh at computer.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 11:35 PM
To: 'ssi_discussion at googlegroups.com'
Subject: iConference: please help us in "Exploring the Social Studies of
Information" 

 

Hello SSI colleagues,

 

You may recall that some time ago we posted a call for those interested in
contributing to a workshop proposal for the upcoming iConference in Berlin
(March 4-7). Happily our proposal for a full day event "Exploring the Social
Studies of Information" was accepted, is featured on the iConference
registration form, and will indeed be taking place.  Our current description
is at www.socialstudiesof.info/workshop14. 

 

We have a little more than three months before the workshop, and will be
tweaking the exact format and lineup for much of that period based on the
number of people registering and the lineup of people we can persuade to
take part. However early registration for the iConference closes on December
15 so we'd like to get as many people as possible on board by then.
http://ischools.org/the-iconference/registration/ 

 

All of you would be most welcome at the workshop. Anything you could do to
spread the word without your own communities would also be much appreciated.
So

 

.         If you are already going to the iConference, please do register
for this workshop and include it in your plans. 

.         If you are NOT already going to the iConference, but would like
to, we would love to put you on our program. 

.         In either case, if you would be willing to participate in a
roundtable discussion or help to lead a breakout discussion on the
relationship of a specific research community/tradition to SSI then please
let me know and we will try to find a suitable spot for you on the program.
This is compatible with any plans you might have in regular sessions. (All
workshops are held at the same time, on Tuesday, 4 March. This means that
you can combine participation in the workshop with whatever session you may
be scheduled in on the main conference which runs Wednesday to Friday).

.         If you aren't going to the iConference and don't want to, umm, no
action is necessary.

 

The workshop will be quite informal, with no traditional research
presentations and few formal talks of any kind. The program is being
structured around roundtable "plenaries" and smaller breakout discussions on
specific topics. Everyone who comes will have a chance to introduce
themselves and their interests. It's a community, or metacommunity, building
opportunity. We do not intend SSI to be a competitor or alternative to
established identities such as "social informatics" or "information history"
which will have their own sessions at the conference, and in fact are
seeking participants from as many different research traditions within the
iSchool world as possible. The event will be, in large part, a chance to get
to know people with complementary interests from different research
traditions.

 

Best wishes,

 

Tom Haigh

www.tomandmaria.com/tom 

 

 

 

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