[ecrea] CFP: 'Defining the Sensor Society' Conference, UQ, 8 - 9 May 2014

Call For Papers: "Defining the Sensor Society"

A multi-disciplinary symposium at the University of Queensland, 8 – 9 
May 2014

Key topic areas: Surveillance, Privacy, and Control in the Digital Era


RATIONALE

Sensors are proliferating across the networked digital landscape in the 
form of smart phones, smart cameras, interactive billboards, drones, and 
a growing array of fixed environmental sensors and interactive devices 
and platforms. The advent of digital interactivity means that devices 
which permeate our work, social, leisure, and domestic lives can all 
come to double as sensors. Our cars collect detailed information about 
our driving habits and destinations. Our smart phones gather a growing 
array of detailed and data about our communication activities and more. 
The growing network of sensors contributes to a fast-growing stream of 
data about everything from the weather to the details of our personal 
lives and our movements throughout the course of the day.

This changing environment of mass information sensors is dependent on 
sense-making infrastructures that include the networks whereby the data 
is transmitted and shared, the databases where data are stored and 
analysed, and the various platforms whereby this information is put to 
use. The shift away from targeted, discrete forms of information 
collection to always-on, ubiquitous, expanding and accelerating data 
collection results in significant changes in our understandings of 
surveillance, information processing, and privacy in the digital era.  
In particular, sensor-based forms of information collection mark a shift 
in focus from isolated targets to environments, eco-systems (broadly 
construed), and populations. In the sensor society all data is relevant, 
all data potentially useful. The spiral of information collection is 
self-fuelling: too much data is no longer the problem; it’s now the 
solution. More data requires more sensors, more sensors require more 
infrastructure, and more infrastructure enables further data collection. 
The sensor society pushes necessarily in the direction of automated 
information processing, analysis, and response.  The sensors are 
generating more data than is comprehensible or usable by non-automated 
means: IBM estimates that sensors generate the equivalent of a 
quarter-million Libraries of Congress every day (and growing).  In the 
sensor society, much of the communication, interactivity, and feedback 
takes place between devices and platforms: the sensor becomes the avatar 
of the interactive interface.

The sensor society therefore raises significant questions about the role 
of privacy, power and surveillance in the world of the ever-watching, 
ever-sensing always-on interactive device. Control over the sensing 
infrastructure, the databases, and the response platforms will play a 
crucial role in how information is used and who benefits. This 
multi-disciplinary conference seeks to open up theoretical, empirical, 
and historical approaches to the sensor society.  We invite 
contributions that explore the sensor society from a variety of 
perspectives to illuminate our understandings of its social, political, 
cultural, and regulatory implications.

For more information as the conference program develops, see: 
http://cccs.uq.edu.au/sensor-society

POSSIBLE TOPICS

The conference organisers welcome submissions from a variety of 
different academic disciplines relating to privacy, surveillance, data 
analytics and the social implications of technology. The conference will 
therefore explore emerging and critical trends in privacy, including but 
not limited to the following:

    * Critiquing and reforming information privacy law to address the 
threats and challenges that arise from the extended use of data sensors 
such as mobile phones or Google Glass
    * The use of sensors for law enforcement and national security, 
including predictive policing, drones, automated license plate readers, etc.
    * Examining the history and social consequences of data analytics
    * The legal, social and technical implications of using sensor 
collected data for policy and research
    * Defining and examining the development of ‘workplace’ or ‘people’ 
analytics and its potential effect on the rights of employees
    * Using mobile sensors and data analytics for monitoring welfare 
recipients
    * Critiquing the use of ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) to identify 
the privacy implications that arise
    * Imaging the future use of sensors in social networks and other 
networked platforms
    * Examining the use of sensors/data analytics in educational settings
    * Examining the challenges for information storage and security 
that arise from mass sensor data collection
    * Identifying the technologies and the technical, social and legal 
implications of mass sensor collection
    * Examining the history of humans and devices as sensors and 
surveillance agents
    * The use of sensors for consumer monitoring and targeting
    * The development of biometric sensors for applications ranging 
from health care and self-monitoring to security, policing, and marketing
    * Use of sensors for self-quantification, evaluation, and behaviour 
modification
    * The relationship between surveillance, monitoring, and 
environmental sensing
    * The ways in which sensors permeate and reconfigure space and 
spatial relations
    * Identifying the social and legal threats related to the use of 
sensor collected data for law enforcement and national security purposes
    * Examining the future of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as mass 
data collectors

POTENTIAL PANELS

The conference organisers would also be interested to receive 
submissions for participation in panel discussions relating to the 
following topics:

    * Google Glass
    * Apps and Smart Phones
    * Drones
    * Data mining and analytics

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS

The conference organisers anticipate publishing invited papers in an 
edited collection. Authors who would like their full conference paper to 
be considered for publication should indicate so to the conference 
organisers during submission. Papers for the conference should be 
submitted to (admin.cccs /at/ uq.edu.au).  Submission dates are as follows:

Abstract submission details:

Length: 500 words outlining topic area, argument, and significance. 
Abstracts should contribute in some way to a consideration of the sensor 
society and the issues it raises. We are also happy to consider full papers.
Deadline: January 15, 2014

Author notification: February 17, 2014

Final versions of invited papers for publication due: June 30, 2014. 
Papers should be 6,000-8,000 words in length, including notes and 
bibliography.
VENUE

The conference will be held at the University of Queensland, St Lucia 
Campus, during Privacy Awareness Week, on 8 and 9 May. The University of 
Queensland is one of Australia’s premier research and higher learning 
institutions. It is ranked in the top 100 universities internationally 
and the St. Lucia Campus is located in a picturesque suburb of Brisbane, 
a short ferry ride away from downtown and the South Bank arts centres.

REGISTRATION

$100 / $50 for PhD students. Further details on the registration process 
will be available in early 2014.


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