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Please see below the call for participation for a forthcoming workshop.
Registration details and the full programme can be found at:
http://www.iris.salford.ac.uk/iris/p/?s=8&pid=48

Digital Culture: New Forms of Living and Organizing?

16-17 June, 2008
Informatics Research Institute, University of Salford, U.K.

Call for Participation

Organizers
Ben Light, University of Salford.
Steve Sawyer, Pennsylvania State University and University of Salford.

Confirmed Speakers
William H. Dutton - Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, Professor
of Internet Studies, University of Oxford.

Sue Hessey - Prinicipal Research Professional, BT Group CTO

Michael D. Myers - Professor of Information Systems, University of
Auckland Business School/University of Salford.

Kathleen Richardson - Department of Social Anthropology, University of
Cambridge.

While access to digital technologies remains variable, it is clear their
presence and uses are increasingly important features of contemporary
life. Where historically, one might argue that digital technologies have
had more influence in work organizations it appears that in recent times
we are witnessing a change to this. That is, the uptake of digital
technology into our domestic lives is shaping our experiences at work.
Moreover, the list of these digital technologies grows longer and more
varied. Therefore, beyond the massive levels of interest, as manifested
in the number of people using these digital technologies, lie questions
of their roles in supporting new forms of organizing and their effects
upon our everyday experiences. Such experiences, of course, happen
within the world of work and more generally in society - we can see this
as 'digital culture'.
More broadly, digital technologies are merging into physical
infrastructures - at home, in transport, at work and school, and even
walking 'alone' while texting. This suggests that these technologies are
playing an ever-more important role in helping us construct and carry
our identity and engage with places in an evolving society. Given this,
there is a need to attend to the potential reshaping of the boundaries
and structures of existing social organization, and the altering of the
ways in which people learn to experience life. Digital technologies
raise issues related to:
* shaping and supporting collaboration through sites such as
MySpace;
* collective action as evident in blogging activities;
* decision-making in spaces such as World of Warcraft and other
MMORPGs;
* expertise location using sites such as Twitter;
* managing work/domestic boundaries, using mobile phones and
texting for example;
* the locus and nature of social engagements such as those enacted
in Second Life;
* the translucence among work, community and private life that
applications like Facebook have the capacity to generate;
* the nature of organizing that all these examples have the
potential to exemplify.
Describing forms, uses and effects of digital technology challenges
current conceptualizations of what it means to be 'doing computing'. For
example, is Facebook a development environment (there are more than 8300
applications available for use)? Is Amazon a library? Put simply, the
convergence of media, technology, applications, development mechanisms,
and social engagements challenge the notion of systems just as it
invites us to question our notions of organizing.

Conceptualizing our lives in digital culture terms demonstrates the
vibrancy of the scope of information and communications technologies,
organizations and society. Doing this destabilises common notions that
portray the field of computing as struggling and, in particular, that
information technology's uses in organizations is about managerial
control or industrial age models of economic production. Scholars of
computing, IT, media, organization, and society are each able to
contribute to this burgeoning socio-technical transformation - bringing
complimentary skills, perspectives and insights.
We see this workshop having three purposes. First, we seek to give voice
and structure to existing ICT related research which may not readily sit
within conventionally accepted areas. Second, we seek to draw in
research on new forms of digital technology, ICT, computing,
organization and society to contribute. Third, we seek to continue
discussions regarding potential futures for ICT related research which
combine research as related to work organizations and society.

Important Dates
We would be grateful if people would register for the workshop by 10
June if possible. If you wish to register after that date, please could
you contact Nathalie Audren-Howarth at: n.audren@salford.ac.uk in order
that we can make sure we have space for you.

Professor Ben Light
Director: IS, Organisation and Society Research Centre
University of Salford
SALFORD
M5 4WT

Tel. +44 (0)161 295 5443

SBS: http://www.business.salford.ac.uk/staff/benlight
IRIS: http://www.iris.salford.ac.uk