Further Extended Deadline - call for papers: 26th March 2007
International Conference on Organisational Semiotics ICOS2007
Background
Organisational Semiotics (OS) is an emergent discipline whose purpose is to study the nature,
characteristics, functions and effects of information and communication within organisational
contexts. The contribution of OS to the understanding, analysis, modelling, design and
implementation of organisational and technical information systems has attracted much attention
of researchers and practitioners from many subject areas.
Organisational Semiotics may be seen as a discipline that helps us to understand the inter-
workings and interactions among individuals within society, and also between human beings and
technology. OS opens up prospects for scientific theory building and provides a means of gaining
insight into organized behaviour and enacted social practices, in the presence and absence of
various technologies. The broad issues that concern the researchers in this field are philosophical,
social and technical, studied through existing and newly developed semiotic theories and
methods.
A strong motivation behind this research stems from the recognition that the social study of the
impact of IT impact does not address the fine detail of how information functions within and
between organisations. The analysis and design of information systems employs methods for
solving the practical problems preceding software engineering, but without offering adequate
scientific foundations for them. Such methods have not been appropriate for addressing many of
the problems caused by the rapid growth of global communications with its effects on business,
government, the economy and politics. However, a semiotic perspective can accommodate the
individual and the social, the human and the technical, and intra-company and inter-company
interactions, at the level of detail that is required for studying, modelling, designing and
engineering organisational and technical systems.
Conference
The conference is the tenth in a series of international events devoted to the latest research in
Organisational Semiotics. This year it is being held at Sheffield Hallam University, which is situated
in the county of Yorkshire in the north of England. The main theme on this occasion is:
Complexity in Organisational and Technological Systems.
Participants should plan to arrive at the conference on Monday, 23 July 2007. The technical and
social programme will occupy the whole of Tuesday-Thursday 24-26 July, including the
conference excursion to and banquet at Chatsworth House on the Wednesday afternoon and
evening.
On this occasion the International Conference on Organisational Semiotics is being held at the
same time and place as the 15th International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS 2007,
and it is planned that some keynote lectures will be shared by both conferences.
In addition, the 15th International Conference on Conceptual Structures will include an Industry
Day (on Friday, 27 July). Participants in the International Conference on Organisational Semiotics
may attend the Industry Day if they wish, in which case they will need to pay an additional fee and
also spend an extra day and night at Sheffield. Further details of the Industry Day may be found on
the ICCS 2007 website http://www.iccs.info/industry_day.php.
Call for Papers
The conference in 2007 will continue the efforts of the international research community in the
development of the emergent discipline of Organisational Semiotics (OS). It will focus not only on
advancing the theory of OS but also on sharing the practical benefits gained so far through
applications of methods and techniques derived from various OS approaches.
Contributors to the conference may present theoretical investigations and address practical
problems from a range of perspectives, such as:
• Organisational Semiotic theory, concepts, methods and techniques.
• Fundamental notions in Organizational Semiotics and their practical applications.
• Semiotically based analysis of problems and of data.
• Semiotically motivated approaches to information and communication systems.
• User-centred approaches to information systems and information management.
• Semiotics of interactions and user interface design.
• Language-action paradigms.
• Organisational Semiotics and Systems Theory.
• Semiotically based methods for systems development: requirements, design,
implementation, evaluation, maintenance, and the documentation of these activities.
• Semiotically inspired approaches to the management of knowledge and of documented
information.
• Semiotically based approaches to multimedia.
The main theme of ICOS 2007 is Complexity in Organisational and Technological Systems. Papers
related to this theme are particularly welcome. However, contributions on other aspects of
Organisational Semiotics are also acceptable.
All contributions will be peer reviewed. Both papers of a theoretical nature and papers that discuss
empirical or historical research are welcomed. Extended versions of a selection of papers will be
considered for further publication in a special issue of a journal or a book (to be announced).
Contributions will generally take the form of spoken presentations. However, poster presentations
are acceptable as an alternative. Authors of posters should submit for review a short paper,
containing the main points of their presentation.
Submission of Papers
Contributors are requested to submit a full paper, in pdf format and contained in a zip file, which
should reach the Conference Secretary by Monday, 26 March 2007.
Final, camera-ready versions of accepted papers should be produced in Word, with at least 1.5-
line spacing, and submitted along with a pdf version. These documents, contained in zip files,
should reach the Conference Secretary by Monday, 9 July 2007.
A submission procedure will be provided in the conference website at www.orgsem.org.
Important Dates
Full paper submission: 26 March 2007
Notification of acceptance: 28 May 2007.
Camera-ready version: 9 July 2007.
Conference: 24 – 26 July 2007.
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