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Symposium Announcement: Subversion, Conversion, Development: Public  
Interests in ICT

CRASSH, Cambridge University 25th - 26th April 2008

As part of the 'New forms of knowledge for the 21st Century' research  
agenda at Cambridge University, the Centre for Research in the Arts,  
Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge University, in conjunction  
with the Open Object Initiative and the Cambridge University Museum of  
Archaeology and Anthropology, are pleased to announce a two day  
symposium, sponsored by Intel and British Telecom.  The symposium will  
explore why designers and developers of new technologies should be  
interested in producing objects that users can modify, redeploy or  
redevelop. This exploration demands an examination of presuppositions  
that underpin the knowledge practices associated with the various  
productions of information communication technologies (ICT).  A  
central question that the symposium will address is that of diversity:  
diversity of use, of purpose, and of value(s). Does diversity matter,  
in the production and use of ICT, and if so, why?

The aims of the symposium are:

     * To promote the development of ICT media that ensures diverse  
and local public constituencies and interests.
     * To encourage an approach to ICT development - in education and  
civic society - that will adopt and enable diversity of use, local  
modification and creativity.
     * To encourage cultural and educational institutions to  
disseminate their vast bodies of information for the use of diverse  
communities, with diverse interests and knowledges, in a way that will  
enable and empower reuse, modification and local significance.

To address these questions, the symposium will explore two overlapping  
themes: modification of use, and modifications of social processes  
facilitated by, or inspired by, engagements with ICT. How have new  
technologies come to be incorporated in existing social practices? In  
what ways have peoples use of ICTs facilitated greater agency and  
capacity for political engagement? In making issues public, or through  
making publics, how has the use of ICT given or amplified the voice of  
particular communities? How might models of collaborative work, of  
effective organization or action be facilitated by ICT? Could the  
resultant models be used as an inspiration for developing appropriate  
and usable social interventions, or further technological objects?  
What are the implications that these instances might have for a 'user  
centered' or 'user owned' ICT agenda.

While the workshop will encourage those who interrogate the current  
faith in the digital as the answer to social, educational and archival  
problems, the intention of this workshop is to offer developers a  
chance to begin to engage with the perspective of particular, socially  
innovative end users in order to foster diversity of use.

Speakers include:

Marilyn Strathern (Cambridge)
Geoff Bowker (Santa Clara)
Leigh Star (Santa Clara)
Jane Anderson (Duke University, US)
Poline Bala (University of Malaysia, Sarawak)
Bart Barendrecht (Leiden)
Alan Blackwell (Computer Lab, Cambridge)
Hildegard Diemberger (Cambridge)
Stephen Hugh-Jones (Cambridge)
Jim Enote (Zuni Mapping Project)
Tim Ingold (Aberdeen)
Bill Gaver (Interaction Research Studio, Goldsmith)
Jon Ippolito (University of Maine)
Joline Blais (University of Maine)
gkisedtanamoogk (University of Maine)
Matthew Jones (Future Interaction Technology Lab, Swansea University)
Beth Kolko (Washington)
Giles Lane (Probiscis)
James Leach (Aberdeen)
Wendy Seltzer (Berkman Centre, Harvard)
Jerome Lewis (UCL)
Merlyna Lim (Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, Arizona State  
University)
Daria Loi (Intel Research)
Dawn Nafus (Intel Research)
John Norman (CARET, Cambridge)
Govindan Parayil (University of Oslo )
Gregers Petersen (Copenhagen Business School)
Juan Salazar ( University of Western Sydney)
Matt Ratto (Toronto)
Ramesh Srinivasan (Information Studies, UCLA)
Wendy Thomas (Canadian Heritage Info Network)
Will Tuladhar-Douglas (Aberdeen)
Michael Christie (School of Education, Charles Darwin University)
Helen Verran (School of Philosophy, University of Melbourne)
Laura Watts (Lancaster)

Further details are available here http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2007-8/technologies.html

Attendance is by invitation and places are limited.  Please email Lee  
Wilson, [log in to unmask] to express an interest in participating.

_______

Dr. Lee Wilson
Centre for Research in the Arts,
Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Cambridge,
17 Mill Lane,
Cambridge, CB2 1RX

Tel: +44 1223 766886
Fax: +44 1223 765276

http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/






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