At least one person who understands crypto should go -- the other participants may not know what our technology makes possible. Forwarded-by: Stanton McCandlish <mech@eff.org> Forwarded-by: Phil Agre <pagre@weber.ucsd.edu> Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 19:02:39 PDT From: Lucy Suchman <suchman@parc.xerox.com> >>> Workshop Announcement <<< CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE CREATION AND CONTROL OF PERSONAL/COLLECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS SPACES to be held in conjunction with the ACM 1994 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW'94) Chapel Hill, North Carolina Saturday, October 22, 1994 sponsored by IFIP WG9.1 (Computers and Work) (pending approval) organized by Andrew Clement Faculty of Information Studies University of Toronto Lucy Suchman Systems and Practices Lab Xerox PARC Ina Wagner Centre for CSCW Technical University of Vienna Themes and Goals: The development of CSCW applications generally implies new ways of recording and transmitting detailed information about individual users' behaviour. Frequently,this is associated with new forms of interpersonal access. This is the case for those working in settings as diverse as team based manufacturing environments and the "media spaces" of corporate research labs. Even routine use of email poses still unresolved questions about who has access to messages and under what conditions. Such new communications capabilities pose the possibility of unwelcome intrusion and exposure. More generally, they can undermine the ability of individuals and groups to negotiate control of information about themselves. Personal privacy may be threatened and the potential for CSCW technologies to support collaboration impaired. This workshop builds upon the experiences with the privacy workshop and panel sessions held at CSCW'92 (see reports in SIGCHI Bulletin, October 1993, and especially, SIGOIS Bulletin, August 1993). Whereas the former workshop focused on identifying privacy issues, this one will emphasise remedial responses. In particular, it will explore theoretical and practical considerations in developing various forms of communications spaces under the control of the individuals and groups concerned. The specific goals of this one day workshop are: - to further develop a network of researchers and practitioners who have an ongoing interest in the privacy and related implications of CSCW technologies - to explore the theoretical and practical aspects of defining manageable personal and group information spaces within CSCW applications - to consider possibilities for diverse forms of participation (and non- participation) in the use of communications media and technologically mediated workspaces - to elaborate a general framework to guide CSCW developers and implementors in creating applications that are sensitive to personal/collectiveinformation control concerns. Planned Activities: In the morning session, participants will explore in detail several realistic scenarios involving privacy/accessibility issues. These will reflect a range of common/plausible situations by drawing upon prior research and participants' written submissions. Discussions of each scenario will focus on identifying the sources of concern, their basis in technologies and/or social relations, and the ways in which potential privacy violations may be avoided or diminished. Design options will be highlighted. The afternoon session will identify and elaborate the general principles that underlie the scenarios analysed earlier. These will cover recommendations and appropriate rationales that can guide the design of technologies and inform working practices. The main product will be a set of key ideas to incorporate in a report suitable for publication in SIGCHI/SIGOIS Bulletins. Organizer Backgrounds: Andrew Clement's research has been on the social and organizational implications of workplace computerization. A central theme of this work has been the ways in which users exercise control and are controlled through computing technology. He has written several papers on the subject of electronic workplace surveillance and, as a participant in the Ontario Telepresence project, is currently researching the privacy aspects of media spaces. He organized the privacy workshop at CSCW'92. He is vice chair of IFIP WG9.1 (Computers and Work). Lucy Suchman's research concerns the social relations of computer systems design and use, including studies of cooperative working practices in technology-intensive workplaces. Through her involvement in the CSCW and Participatory Design communities, she has worked to develop more use-oriented practices of systems design. She was Program Chair for the Second Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, and is engaged in ongoing dialogues with the PARC/EuroPARC media space and ubiquitous computing projects. Ina Wagner is the Director of the Centre for CSCW at the Technical University of Vienna. Her recent research has focused on the political and cultural aspects of software development practices and on time management issues in medical teams. She was the principal organizer of the recent IFIP WG9.1 NetWORKing Conference ("Connecting Workers In and Between Organizations") and serves as the Working Group's chair. Participant Selection: Prospective participants are asked to submit a short position statement (2-5 pages) describing their background, nature of interest in the workshop themes (e.g. privacy, CSCW application development, what they consider to be the primary issues and promising remedial approaches). As part of this, prospective participants are also encouraged to submit a brief scenario description (2-3 pages), suitable for discussion in the workshop. These should describe a situation, preferably based on experience, which explores a privacy concern in connection with the use of CSCW technologies. The richer and more detailed the better. Identities of individuals and organizations should be suitably disguised. Position statements and scenarios will be distributed to participants in advance of the session. Participants, to a maximum of 20, will be selected to promote a stimulating mix of researchers, developers, implementors and users of CSCW technologies. Four copies of the position paper/scenario should be sent by August 15, 1994 to the contact person, Andrew Clement. Please also email an ASCII version. Invitations will be sent by August 29, 1994. Be sure to include your name, address, telephone number, email address and fax number in your submission. The workshop will start at 8:30AM Saturday morning and last until 5PM. The workshop fee is $50, which includes continental breakfast, lunch and refreshment breaks. The fee is payable at the conference. Contact: Andrew Clement Faculty of Information Studies University of Toronto 140 St George Street Toronto, Ontario Canada M5S 1A1 clement@fis.utoronto.ca (416) 978-3111 (Office) (416) 971-1399 (Fax)