Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing Symposium
Conference on Online Deliberation
(DIAC-2008/OD2008)

Sponsored by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
and UC Berkeley School of Information

Partners: National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD)

University of California, Berkeley
June 26 - 29, 2008
http://www.publicsphereproject.org/events/diac08/

At the dawn of the 21st century humankind faces challenges of
profound proportions. The ability of people around the world to
discuss, work, make decisions, and take action collaboratively is one
of the most important capabilities for addressing these challenges.

Researchers, scholars, activists, advocates, artists, educators,
technologists, designers, students, policy-makers, entrepreneurs,
journalists and citizens are rising to these challenges in many ways,
including, devising new communication technologies that build on the
opportunities afforded by the Internet and other new (as well as old)
media. The interactions between technological and social systems are
of special and central importance in this area.

DIAC-08 combines CPSR's 11th DIAC symposium with the third Conference
on Online Deliberation. The joint conference is intended to provide a
platform and a forum for highlighting socio-technological
opportunities, challenges, and pitfalls in the area of community and
civic action. Technology enhanced community action ranges from
informal communities of practice to democratic governance of formal
organizations to large social movements.

We are especially interested in technology development that is
already being tested or fielded. We are also interested in
theoretical and other intellectual work that helps build
understanding and support for future efforts. In addition to
exploring social technology, we must at the same time understand and
advance the social context of technology, including its design,
access, use, policy and evaluation, as well as intellectual
frameworks and perspectives that inform technological as well as
social innovation including requirements, case studies, critique and
self-reflection, and infrastructures for future work.

Our areas of focus include but are not limited to: deliberative and
collaborative systems, e-democracy and e-participation, mobilization
and organization, negotiation, consultation, sustainability,
community support systems, open source models, human rights,
ecological awareness, conflict resolution, justice, transparency
systems, media and civic journalism, media literacy, power research,
citizen science, economic development and opportunity, peace and
reconciliation, infrastructure development, policy, education,
community networks, research and development for civil society,
social software, virtual communities and civic intelligence.

We are currently interested in the following types of submissions:
research paper and exploratory paper presentations (both of which
will be peer reviewed), technology demonstrations, workshops and
poster sessions. We are currently seeking co-sponsors who can help
provide various types of assistance. We are also seeking donations
and other support (including volunteer labor) to help make this event
successful.

The DIAC symposia have resulted in six book publications (in addition
to the proceedings). Although we don't have specific plans at this
time, we are hoping to publish our seventh book based on this event.

Guidelines for papers and other submissions

All submissions must be made via the conference submission system on
the DIAC-08 web site. Submissions should be written in English and
foreign speakers are encouraged to have their submissions reviewed
for language prior to submission. Submissions should be formatted for
"US Letter" size using 11 point Times-Roman font. Research papers
should be a maximum of 10 pages. Accepted research papers should be
revised according to reviewer comments and resubmitted by the
deadline. Workshop proposals (two pages) should include motivation,
objectives, expected outcomes, intended audience, process (including
specific description of how people will be engaged during the
workshop). Taking a cue from PDC 2008, we are also interested in
exploratory papers (4 pages), that reflect novel concepts,
works-in-progress, reflections, manifestos or other ideas and issues
that aren't currently suitable for a research paper.

Important Dates

January 1, 2007 Submission system available
January 15, 2007 Early registration begins
February 15, 2008 Research paper submissions due
March 15, 2008 Demonstration, workshop proposals due
April 1, 2008 Notices of research paper acceptances
April 15, 2008 Poster proposals due
May 1, 2008 Late registration begins
May 15, 2008 Completed research papers due
June 26 - June 29, 2008 DIAC-2008/OD2008

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

CPSR is a public-interest alliance of people concerned about the
impact of information and communications technology on society. By
sponsoring international, national, and local projects and events,
CPSR serves as a catalyst for in-depth discussion and effective
action in key areas.

UC Berkeley School of Information

Providing the world with innovative information solutions and
leadership, the UC Berkeley School of Information conducts research,
provides policy counsel, and trains information professionals in five
areas of concentration including information design and architecture,
information assurance, social studies of information, human-computer
interaction, and information economics and policy.

Conference Chair
Douglas Schuler

Program Chairs
Todd Davies, Jerome Feldman, and Douglas Schuler

Related Conferences

We also recommend the Participatory Design Conference which will be
held in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. September 30, 2008 - October 4,
2008. See http://www.pdc2008.org/. The theme of this 10th PDC is
"Experiences and Challenges" and it is an excellent opportunity to
reassess the achievements of the PD movement and to consider its
future.

http://onewebday.org

Who among you has interest in ICANN issues? Are you following them currently? Which issues have your attention?

AFCN is following ICANN and the process of the formation of Regional At Large Organizations (RALOs) which serve as an aggregation of "At Large Structures" (ALSs) in each region (global).

The At Large process is intended as a vehicle for everyday users of the Internet to have a voice in Internet governance questions.

Whether the voice of everyday users will play a meaningful role in Internet governance and ICANN specific issues remains to be determined, but if you are active or have interest in becoming active in following these issues or in helping educate the public or providing a channel so their voice can be heard, please let us know.

Regards,

Michael

Recent Changes takes it's name from Wiki tool and takes it's inspiration from Wiki Culture

Among the many developments of this Open Space format event is the effort to establish an Open Guild. See the wiki: http://www.oguild.org

Under this rubric there is opportunity for a place-based node for Portland as well as a more general virtual community and dreams of a network of such place-centered nodes. Open Source technologists/developers are a core constituency, but there was some care in framing the idea as being about an Open movement, rather than just Open Source.

One project being undertaken under the banner of the Open Guild is SourceTree (in early stage of development) ... a repository for managing source code from the frame of increasing ease and likelihood of collaboration among projects and conservation of code. Think "object registry" with multiple tools for filtering and visualizing relationships, including genealogy and families of code. The concept evolved from the notion that tools like sourceforge ought to reflect more of the ethos of the Open Movement in their design. This will make Strategic Roadmapping among code projects more possible. (Find the missing API.)

My personal commitments/interests are more in the direction of Open Source tools for NPOs and Civicl Society - with great affinity for the notion of Social Source as a subset of Open Source (See paper by Jonathan Peizer), so I feel compelled to mention that Aspiration Tech is convening an event down in Oakland later in February. http://aspirationtech.org/events/devsummit (Wish I could be there!)

Montreal is holding it's own event (May 18-20) inspired by the first RCC, called RoCoCo. From: http://www.rocococamp.info/

RoCoCo is a non-recursive acronym, for "Rencontres sur la Collaboration, la Créativité et l'Autogestion" (Meetings on Collaboration, Creativity and Self-Management.)

The panel's recommendations come as Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and other cities wrestle with how to build and price their own high-speed Internet networks to make broadband more accessible to residents.

The panel's recommendations came from a unique process of public consultation known as a consensus conference, which has been used worldwide to help the public make better-informed judgments about technology policy issues than those that are often expressed in public hearings and polls. The twelve members of the panel, including representatives from groups with the lowest rates of broadband access in the country, studied background papers, convened a public hearing where the panelists questioned experts from government, industry, and community groups, and deliberated like a jury before arriving at their recommendations by consensus.

"We often hear that the public doesnt know or care enough about technical issues to make good decisions about them," said Al Hammond, conference co-organizer and Director of the Broadband Institute of California. "These residents not only learned about the issues, they introduced new ones that we 'experts' haven't considered," Hammond said.

"The panel was enthusiastic about cities commissioning municipal networks, preferably from private companies that have the expertise to build and operate the networks," said Chad Raphael, conference co-organizer and associate professor of communication at SCU. "But the community members felt strongly that the public needs to have more say about shaping access to the networks that we will all rely on one day for our phone, TV, and Internet service."

The project was supported by a wide group of stakeholders on the municipal broadband issue. An advisory panel with representatives from the telephone industry, Silicon Valley technology companies, and community organizations oversaw plans for the project. The panel's public hearing drew presenters from AT&T; the major partners responsible for building Silicon Valley's wireless network, including Wireless Silicon Valley (a project of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network), Cisco Systems, and SeaKay; and advocates for technology access, including the California Community Technology Policy Group and Great Valley Center. The conference was funded by the Community Technology Foundation of California and the California Consumer Protection Foundation.

The panel's full report, available at Broadband For All, also included specific recommendations for how to provide security and privacy, offer equipment and training to get the underserved online, and reach the disabled, rural residents, and non-English speakers in particular.

Registration is open to the public. You may register for only the
morning or only the afternoon, but preference will be given to those who
register for a full day. Space is limited.

For details, see
http://www.rtpnet.org/rtpnet/workshop06nov.shtml

For cost information, see the registration form at
http://www.rtpnet.org/rtpnet/register06nov.html

Register now! This workshop will be cancelled if there are not enough
people registered by October 19, 2006.