Sunday, January 16, 2005

I got another page written for my mini paper and got through the Riggs case now. I will just take my laptop to my office in the other room and print a rough copy for my own proof reading.

I got this email today about a journal looking for papers in 2006. That would be the year I graduate so it might be nice to have something published that year. I might try to write something for this and have contacted the editor. Here is the email. Note I am fairly sure it is not a breach of copyright to republish it here.

'Disability, Identity, and Interdependence: ICTs and New Social Forms'

A call for papers for a special Spring 2006 issue of
Information, Communication & Society edited by

Dr Gerard Goggin, University of Queensland, Australia
Dr Christopher Newell, University of Tasmania, Australia

Our ideas of identity, the body, dependence and independence,
welfare, and ability are undergoing rapid transformation; new social
forms are emerging in which information and communications
technologies (ICTs) take a central but yet little examined role.

With the growing importance of new movements - such as the disability
movement, the online welfare movement, or those concerned with
independent living - ICTs have become an important part of
envisioning and realizing change to daily life for individuals, as
well as the architecture and systems of community and society. At the
present time also there are nascent associated fields of academic
inquiry and policy interest, such as disability studies, theories of
identity, work on social exclusion, and reconsideration of the
meanings of independence.

Disability, for example, poses rich, complex questions and
perspectives for thinking about identity, ICTs, and society. With
greater awareness of disability and the protection given to the
rights of people with disability through national legislation and
international instruments, increasing attention is being given to
researching and understanding the social implications of technology
and disability. As governments and regulators enact new requirements
for accessible technology, corporations and the 'third' sector are
also grappling with how to incorporate disability and accessibility
in their visions of ICTs.

At stake in these developments are important questions about identity
and ICTs. Concepts of welfare have been much debated, especially
under pressure from global economic and political trends. ICTs now
play an indispensable role in social and political organisation
online around welfare issues, in state and private administration of
welfare, in processes of identity-formation concerning welfare. While
independent living is still to be achieved for many, there is now
growing recognition of the balance between dependence and
independence - and that all in society are engaged in understanding
their interdependence and connectedness, something in which ICTs are
offering innovative ways to understand such new social forms.

In this light, we welcome submissions on topics such as (but not
restricted to):

* how thinking about disability, identity, and interdependence opens
up new perspectives on understanding ICTs
* case studies of particular technologies, accessibility, & disability
* the implications of disability for ICT policy and design
* new conceptions of welfare, online welfare movements and ICTs
* independent living and ICTs
* what are the implications of ICTs for the lives of people with a
diverse range of disabilities and impairments, identities, and lives?

Deadline for abstracts is 1 July 2005.

Deadline for final submissions is Monday 12 December 2005.

Potential contributors are encouraged to discuss their ideas with the editors:

Dr Gerard Goggin, Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies,
University of Queensland (g.goggin@uq.edu.au)

Dr Christopher Newell, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania
(christopher.newell@utas.edu.au).

I am slowly working on my paper this evening and tomorrow morning then I am off to my data mining course after getting some sleep. I will also check the data mining course web page in a little bit to see if there is anything new posted.

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