[SEM-GRD] Workshop on Web2.0 & e-Social Science

[Edwards, Dr Peter]

Web2.0 & e-Social Science
Workshop at e-Social Science 2007
October 7-9, Ann Arbour, Michigan, USA

Call for Position Papers

Goals & Objectives

In recent years, the concept of the so-called "Social Web" has emerged
that is similar to the World Wide Web but, instead of linking documents,
links people, organizations, and concepts. It describes the
collaborative effort of users to make sense of and provide context to
the Internet. The term Web2.0 has emerged, not as a new version of the
internet, but as a new way of using it, facilitating collaboration and
sharing between users. Web2.0 is associated with blogs and wikis where
users can keep publicly available online diaries (a new medium for
project diaries?) and volunteer contributions to online encyclopaedias
such as Wikipedia. Social network sites such as MySpace allow users to
create a profile listing their likes, dislikes and favourites (in music,
videos, etc.). This stimulates the emergence of networks of friends and
people with similar interests. Social tagging, where users tag resources
with keywords coined by themselves, has been applied to photos, websites
and academic papers, amongst others. The social bookmark and publication
sharing systems BibSonomy and Connotea allow users to tag websites and
publications and to share these tags with other members of the
community. The tags can be used to search for resources that other
people have tagged, thus providing a different (more effective and
user-centric) way of searching the internet.

We invite position papers on the following topics:

1. The role Web2.0 technologies play in delivering enhanced e-social
science tools. Bibsonomy and Connotea stimulate collaboration by
enabling users to easily share interesting publications, websites etc.
We wish to explore in which other ways Web2.0 technologies can be used
to support e-social science.

2. The role of Web2.0 tools as social science research tools in their
own right. How can wikis, blogs, etc. be used to gather information, as
alternatives to the more classic methods of interviews and
questionnaires?

3. Studies of Web2.0 environments and communities. Web2.0 communities
are interesting phenomena in their own right; we are interested in
studies into the social aspects of these phenomena.

Intended Participants

This workshop is intended for participants working or interested in the
cross-over areas between e-social  science and Web2.0 mentioned above.

Programme/Format

The workshop will comprise one keynote presentation, plus a series of
short presentations on submitted position papers (20 mins duration)
addressing one or more of the themes above. The event will conclude with
a discussion/agenda-setting session.

Position papers (max. two A4 pages in length) should be sent to the
workshop organisers by email to the following addresses: 

csc287 at abdn.ac.uk, a.h.chorley at abdn.ac.uk

Important Dates

August 27 Submission deadline
August 31 Notification
October 7 Workshop

Workshop Registration

Workshop participants must register for e-Social Science 2007
(http://ess.si.umich.edu/index.htm).