[Commlist] What is Information? Call for Proposals

*WHAT IS INFORMATION?*• *University of Oregon Portland • April 30–May 2, 
2020 • whatis.uoregon.edu <http://whatis.uoregon.edu>*

*/What is Information?/** (2020)* will investigate conceptualizations 
and implementations of information via material, representational, and 
hybrid frames. The conference-experience will consider information and 
its transformational /æffects/—from documents to data; from facts and 
fictions to pattern recognition; from physical information to 
differential equations; and from volatility, uncertainty, and ambiguity 
to collective intelligence and wisdom.

The tenth annual /What is…?/ examines//tapestries, 
temperaments, and topologies of information lenses and 
practices—including—social and technical, mathematical and semantic, 
physical and biological, economic and political, cultural and 
environmental information. Thus, information can be understood /as 
/physical (e.g. fingerprints and tree rings), /for /instruction (e.g. 
algorithms and recipes), and /about /epistemic systems (e.g. maps and 
encyclopedias). Next year’s gathering expands on /What is Technology? 
/(2019), which explored technology as tools, processes, and moral 
knowledge, as well as problem-solving and intelligent inquiry.

Scholars, government and community officials, industry professionals, 
scientists, artists, students, filmmakers, grassroots community 
organizations, and the public are invited to collaborate. We welcome 
submissions for papers, panels, roundtables and installations.

*Presentations / panels / installations may include the following 
topics* (as well as others):

• What is information? Are data and information synonymous? Is 
information material/concrete, symbolic/abstract, or both? What 
distinguishes information from knowledge and wisdom?

• Is information freedom? What is meta-data?  What are information 
systems, flows, and gaps?

• What approaches or lenses are used to study information? How do they 
relate to emerging disciplines?

• What are information science and information art? What are 
relationships between STE(A)M and ICT?

• How are the natural sciences and information sciences continuing to 
converge (e.g. bioinformatics)?

• Is information at the core of music, architecture, design, craft, 
and/or science and technology studies?

• Is biology itself information or only a representation? What are data 
science, machine learning and visualization? How are informatics 
enhancing medicine and the environment via regenerative systems?

• What is the philosophy of information? What are information literacy, 
ethics, education, & aesthetics?

• What are networks? What are relationships between information, 
technology/media, and message?

• What are information ecologies, information environments, and how 
do/can they facilitate public good?

• What is political economy of information? How do information & 
socio-cultural factors æffect each other?

• What are current approaches to the study of information professions, 
audiences, and psychology?

• How does information highlight gender, race, indigenous, and/or global 
environmental concerns?

• How can contemplation, empathy, kindness, and/or responsibility be 
studied via information?

• What are patterns of digital divides? What comes /after/ post-truth 
(e.g. cyber-physical)?

• What are data-mining and threat detection or privacy in the 
cyber-defense/cyber-security age?

• Can apps, games, and immersive media help us to adapt to the 
ever-changing information landscape?

• What laws/regulations/policies are appropriate for information? How 
are information & value(s) related?

*Conference Organizers*: Janet Wasko and Jeremy Swartz (University of 
Oregon)

Send 150-word abstracts for papers, panels, installations, and exhibits 
by *DECEMBER 20, 2019*, to:
Janet Wasko • (jwasko /at/ uoregon.edu) 
<mailto:(jwasko /at/ uoregon.edu)> • University of Oregon • Eugene, Oregon • 
97403-1275 • USA

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