UBICOMP 2009 Workshop CFP: Globicomp - Taking Ubicomp Beyond Developed Worlds

******* UBICOMP 2009 Workshop **************************

Globicomp - Taking Ubicomp Beyond Developed Worlds
Sept 30th 2009, Florida, USA

Organisers: Matt Jones (Swansea UK) & Gary Marsden (UCT, South Africa)

www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009<http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009>
in conjunction with ubicomp 2009 (http://www.ubicomp.org/ubicomp2009/)


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First Call for Position Papers
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Ubicomp - everywhere, everybody technology and systems. But are we really exploring inclusive visions? Is ubicomp for everyone or only the relatively affluent?

This workshop is about the billions of people who do not fit the sorts of context mainstream ubicomp has addressed. There are hundreds of millions of users, and billions to come in the next 5 years, in places like India, China and Africa, whose first, and perhaps only, experience of computing will be in the form of mobile and other ubicomp technologies. Many of these users will never live in the sorts of home, or work in the types of office, or daydream in the parks, or take a day-off for the sorts of amusement park envisaged by earlier research.

If you are already working on developing world ubicomp, or are interested in finding out how to create effective technologies for these new environments, then we would encourage you to contribute and attend the workshop.

But it is not just 'developing' countries. What about the marginalised in our 'developed' world - the urban poor, the ill-educated, the homeless, the computer non-literate; i.e. those without access to what many of us take as essential digital infrastructure? We invite contributions considering these contexts too.

Accepted participants will be encouraged to produce posters, videos or interactive demos which will be showcased in the main conference. The Ubicomp organisers are keen to see this topic discussed amongst all the attendees.

Submissions
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Position papers of up to 4 pages in length should be formatted using the ACM template and advice found here.

Papers in two categories are welcome:

   1. Those considering either specific innovations or applications of ubicomp to "developing" world and other marginalised contexts;
   2. and, from researchers who wish to raise issues or discuss the potential of mainstream ubicomp to these sorts of underrepresented constituencies.

Topics of interest include (but of course are not limited to!):

   1. Interface and interaction issues
   2. Devices and infrastructure
   3. Design and development methodologies
   4. Environmental impact and sustainability
   5. Case studies and experience reports
   6. Theoretical perspectives and critiques

See the website for submission details (www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009<http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009>)

Key Dates
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Papers due:
    June 23, 2009
Acceptance notifications:
    July 24, 2009
Final copy due:
    September 1, 2009
Workshop:
    September 30, 2009

Publications/ Dissemination
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Papers will be made available online before the workshop

Posters & demos will be showcased in the main Ubicomp Conference

A special issue of Springer/ACM Personal & Ubiquitous Computing is scheduled for after the workshop (full paper submissions will be solicited in a separate call).


Programme Committee
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Russell Beale University of Birmingham, UK
Nicola Bidwell James Cook University, Australia
Eli Blevis, Indiana University, USA
Stephen Brewster Glasgow University, UK
Anxo Cereijo Roibas Vodafone User Experience
Keith Cheverst Lancaster University, UK
Andrew Deardon, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Jussi Impio, Nokia, Kenya
Amit A Navavati IBM Research, India
Abigal Sellen Microsoft Research, UK
Yvonne Rogers, Open University, UK
Lucia Terrenghi Vodafone R&D, Germany.

Further committee members to be confirmed.