Workshop: 4. Research Issues in the Design of Online Communities

Sunday 09:00 - 17:30. Monday 09:00 - 17:30.

Amy Bruckman, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Thomas Erickson, IBM, USA
Wendy Kellogg, IBM, USA
Lee Sproull, Boston University, USA
Barry Wellman, University of Toronto, Canada

Online communities are rapidly becoming a part of how we work, play, and learn. But how are they designed? What is already known in this emerging field? What are the key questions for future research? Research in this field is interdisciplinary, drawing on diverse fields including anthropology, architecture, computer science, human factors engineering, political science, psychology, and sociology. This workshop aims to bring people from these diverse fields together.

Those desiring to participate should submit a position paper:

• summarizing what your research has shown about online communities,
• outlining future directions your research will explore, and
• highlighting a few additional questions that you feel are important to the future of the field.

Papers must be submitted in HTML to asb@cc.gatech.edu. A length of less than 2500 words is suggested. Accepted papers will be posted on a workshop website. After the workshop, some participants will be invited to expand their papers into book chapters.

The primary criteria for acceptance are relevance to the topic and soundness of research methodology. Work of a speculative nature will not be included. We will also try to ensure that a variety of disciplines are represented.

More information is on the workshop's web page.

Contact:
Amy Bruckman
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
801 Atlantic Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30332-0280 USA
Tel: +1 404 894 9222
Email: asb@cc.gatech.edu