[ecrea] CfP "Divides: Inclusion & Representation Across the Web"

"Divides: Inclusion & Representation Across the Web"

Workshop at the 2015 ACM Web Science Conference

http://divides2015.org/


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While the Web has immensely expanded opportunities for diverse
populations to engage in global discussions and contribute to online
content, questions on how to expand online inclusivity and better attend
to a politics of representation remain pertinent to Web Science.  In
their monograph, "Web Science: Understanding the Emergence of
Macro-Level Features on the World Wide Web," O'Hara et al set forth that
the scientific study of the Web hinges on considering how micro-level
actions emerge into macro-level phenomena. The goal of this workshop is
to reflect on these micro-level actions from the standpoint of users who
have been habitually excluded from or misrepresented in Web environments
and to consider how these divides play a role in shaping macro-level
phenomena. In doing so, the workshop aims to facilitate
interdisciplinary discussions that consider how Web standards,
technologies, platforms, and research methodologies could be improved so
as to increase inclusivity and r

efocus representation on the Web.


This workshop is framed in terms of 'divides' both strategically and
with caution. Focus on 'bridging the digital divide' has privileged
concerns about access to digital technologies over the design and
research decisions that facilitate exclusion and misrepresentation.
While exclusion from the Web is an issue that needs to be attended to,
we would like to broaden the concept of digital divides. The traditional
focus narrows the scope of 'divides' to those who have access to digital
technology v. those that do not, ignoring the diversity of users with
access, the role of architecture in causing exclusion, and the role of
certain research methodologies in establishing a politics of
representation. In another sense, the traditional focus forecloses rich
interdisciplinary collaborations; bridging the digital divide becomes a
mutually exclusive activity where social scientists point out excluded
populations and computer scientists design and deliver. Instead, this
workshop will a

im to reinvigorate the concept of 'divides' with a focus on how social
scientists and computer scientists can draw on each other's expertise in
order to offer insights on how Web standards, technologies, and
platforms can be restructured to enhance participation and engagement
with the Web amongst diverse populations. It will additionally consider
how research studying the Web as complex socio-technical system can
better attend to those who have been excluded from or poorly represented
in Web environments.


The workshop aims to collect empirical cases that exemplify why an
attention to divides is so critical to Web Science. The organizers want
to provide a forum in which both social scientists and computer
scientists can draw from their experiences in designing and studying the
Web in order to provide concrete examples of exclusion and
misrepresentation.



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Submissions

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We are seeking papers that provoke conversation on Web exclusion and
misrepresentation, report on experiences from past or current projects,
that offer ideas for solutions, or strategies.


Relevant topics may include but are not limited to:

* Access and opportunities for engagement

* Inequality of access and inequality of representation

* Visibilities and invisibilities

* Postcolonial/feminist/critical race viewpoints on the Web

* Resistance and quirky approaches to using the Web

* Marginalization on the Web

* Politics of data ideologies, practices, and visualizations

* Politics of Web architectures and platforms

* Examples of Web technologies that consider marginalized users


Submissions should be made via EasyChair:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=divides2015


Papers should be no more than two pages in Word or PDF format, formatted
according to the official ACM SIG proceedings template
(http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates). Please use
the ACM 1998 classification scheme (http://www.acm.org/about/class/1998/).



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Important Dates

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Submission deadline: May 16, 2015 (23:59 Hawaiian time)


Notification: May 26, 2015


Camera-ready: June 20, 2015


Workshop date: June 29, 2015


WebSci15 Conference dates: June 28 to July 1, 2015


Early bird registration for WebSci15: May 28, 2015


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Workshop Organisers

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Lindsay Poirier (Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute), Email: (poiril /at/ rpi.edu) <mailto:(poiril /at/ rpi.edu)>


Elzabi Rimington (Web Science CDT, University of Southampton), Email:
(emr2g08 /at/ soton.ac.uk) <mailto:(emr2g08 /at/ soton.ac.uk)>


Katharina Kinder-Kurlanda (GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social
Sciences), Email: (katharina.kinder-kurlanda /at/ gesis.org)
<mailto:(katharina.kinder-kurlanda /at/ gesis.org)>


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