Dear Colleagues,

find below a CfP for a workshop at ECSCW'03
on user-designer relations.

Apologies for cross-posting.

Yours,

Alexander Voss
([log in to unmask])

--8<--

            THE PROBLEM OF USER-DESIGNER RELATIONS
                    IN TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTION

   Second Call for Participation for a workshop at ECSCW'03

         You can find a PDF-version of this call at:

          http://www.corealisation.com/userdesigner
            (see also http://ecscw2003.oulu.fi)


 Rob Procter, Mark Hartswood, Roger Slack, James Soutter, Alex Voß
 School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK
 [log in to unmask]

 Dan Shapiro, Mark Rouncefield, Monika Büscher
 Depts of Sociology and Computing, University of Lancaster, UK
 [log in to unmask]

 Preben Mogensen
 Computer Science Department, Aarhus University, DK
 [log in to unmask]

 As IT systems become steadily more organisationally embedded, the
 social relations of technology production become even more important
 for the creation of systems that afford work. The search for
 methodological innovations and enhancements that might address the
 problem of user-designer relations has yielded some promising results,
 most notably participatory design and ethnomethodologically informed
 ethnography. However, we feel that these approaches have not been used
 to their full potential. Both have been used, in effect, as 'patches'
 for more fundamental problems around user-designer relations. This
 workshop aims to examine the past, present and possible futures of
 user-designer relations in the production of IT systems, specifically to
 discuss the development of methods for bringing users and designers
 together, to provide the opportunity for members (as users or designers)
 to exchange views and experiences of the practical politics of
 user-designer relations and to develop a 'grammar' of and for user
 involvement in IT technology production.

 Specific Issues & Activities
 ----------------------------

 The background to user-designer relations in design:
 We wish to start with looking at how user-designer relations are set up
 in practice. What is problematic about this? Which factors play a role
 in this? How did the relationship develop over time?

 Current state of the art:
 Many approaches have been developed to address problems that stem from
 traditional user-designer relations. What particular issues/factors do
 they address and how do they relate to each other?

 Potential futures:
 From this analysis of the past and present, we hope to generate some
 ideas as to how the user-designer relationship might be put on a new
 basis. We are confident that a number of possible approaches will be
 proposed at this point.

 Evolving grammars of participation:
 In the last part, we hope to distill what we might call a 'grammar of
 participation' from the ideas generated so far. This 'grammar' should
 serve to put the various suggestions generated on a common foundation.
 At this point we will begin to see which approaches might be consonant
 with each other and which might not.

 Position Statements
 -------------------

 We invite those interested in participating in the workshop to submit
 position statements of 2-4 A4 pages that address some of the issues
 outlined above. These position statements will be reviewed by the workshop
 organisers and the authors of the most relevant contributions will be
 invited to the workshop. The number of attendees will be limited to 20
 (plus the organisers). We are particularly interested  in contributions
 from researchers or practitioners with first-hand practical experience
 of either side of the relationship. Please submit your position
 statements by email to:

                    [log in to unmask]

 or send by post to Rob Procter, ICCS, University of Edinburgh, 2 Buccleuch
 Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW. Make sure your contribution reaches us by June
 13th 2003. We will notify you of acceptance by July 7th so you can make the
 deadline for early registration which is 20th July.

 Pre-Workshop Activities
 -----------------------

 We wish to distribute the position statements well before the workshop in
 order to limit the time needed for introduction and presentations.
 Additionally, we will set up a web-based forum at

                http://www.corealisation.com/userdesigner

 where workshop participants can read the position statements and discuss
 the workshop issues prior to the actual event (and, hopefully, afterwards
 as well).

 Workshop Schedule (provisional)
 -------------------------------

 09:00-10:00 Welcome & Introduction
 10:00-11:00 Activity One: The background to user-designer relations
 11:00-11:30 Coffee
 11:30-12:30 Activity Two: Current state of the art.
 12:30-13:30 Lunch
 13:30-14:30 Activity Three: Potential futures.
 15:00-15:30 Coffee
 15:30-16:30 Activity Four: Evolving grammars of participation.
 16:30-17:00 Wrap up session

 In all sessions, we will have a brainstorming part first which is then
 followed by open discussion led by a moderator. At the end of each session,
 the moderator will take a quick poll from the participants to identify
 major points to focus on in the coming session so as to avoid losing focus.