Call for Papers
Social Internet of Things 2016
29 November 2016
Launceston, Tasmania
http://designparticipation.net/2016/08/07/siot-workshop.html
Deadline for proposal submissions: 26 August 2016
The Internet of Things promise is to endow all sorts of objects with sensing, computing and communication capabilities that augment their functionalities. The opportunities opened are exciting, in domains as diverse as entertainment, health, transports, the workplace. A great effort is being put in addressing the technical problems connected with deploying and handling this infrastructure, while the human side of the IoT is receiving relatively less attention. Users are often relegated at the periphery of an otherwise autonomous network of ‘smart’ objects.
A complementary and more human centric vision places sensors at the fingertips of their users, rather than pointing at them, therefore allowing, ideally, for greater agency at the human side of the interface, yet such vision builds on rather utopian scenarios. Crucially, critical issues of privacy, security, maintenance, sustainability, training, are not receiving the due attention.
This workshop will continue the conversation started at OzCHI 2014 with the workshop Social Internet of Things, in which we explored questions such as: why are internet enabled objects struggling to emerge as consumer devices? What can we learn from success (and failure) stories? Who are smart objects for, what goals they serve and what skills are required to build, use and maintain them?
To move one step further, we seek critical and original positions about the current research on smart objects and internet of things, particularly when directed at children, older adults, or vulnerable users. To animate the discussion we invite participants to envision dystopian scenarios or to present informed accounts of technology gone wild.
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Contributions can take any form, e.g. a paper, a video, a dysfunctional prototype, as long as they are suitable for presentation or demonstration. Our goal is to shed some light on the dark side of smart interconnected technologies, overcoming the rhetoric of monitoring users for their own good, but also the utopian vision of engaging user with idealized technologies that never fail and never let down.
Authors of accepted contributions will be further invited to evolve their work into a research paper towards inclusion into a HERDC fulfilling publication (i.e. peer reviewed, with ISBN/ISSN).
IMPORTANT DATES
- 15 August 2016 – Website and call for contributions advertised, initial program committee
- 26 August 2016 – deadline for proposal submissions
- 23 September 2016 – notification of acceptance
- 15 November 2016 – Final contribution due for inclusion in online/USB proceedings
WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
- Alessandro Soro – Queensland University of Technology
- Margot Brereton – Queensland University of Technology
- Paul Roe – Queensland University of Technology
- Peta Wyeth – Queensland University of Technology
- Daniel Johnson – Queensland University of Technology
- Aloha Hufana Ambe – Queensland University of Technology
CONTACT US
For all enquiries and to submit a contribution mailto:alessandro.soro@qut.edu.au