Dear all,
An interesting cfp for those interested in urban agriculture in the domain
of HCI.
Best,
Leonardo.
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*apologies for cross-posting*
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Urban Agriculture: A Growing Field of Research

Workshop at the INTERACT 2013 Conference
Tuesday September 3rd, 2013
Cape Town, South Africa

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: May 12th, 2013
NOTIFICATION: May 22nd, 2013

http://www.urbaninformatics.net/resources/interact2013cfp/
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Growing food presents diverse challenges and opportunities within the
urban environment. As cities develop, population density rises, land
prices rise, and the opportunity to use land for traditional farming
and gardening diminishes. Counter to this trend there are a growing
number of both community gardens, city farms, 'guerilla gardening',
effective use of rooftop gardens, pot plants, windowsill herbs and
backyard gardens cropping up in different cities, all with a purpose to
produce local food, supplemented in part by food co-op organisations.
This workshop brings together practitioners and researchers in the field
of urban agriculture and HCI to explore the different forms of growing
practice and the sustainable impact of locally grown produce.

*** TOPIC ***

There is a growing interest in exploring design opportunities for urban
agriculture in the domain of HCI. Until now the focus has typically been
on the more general food and technology experience, where this workshop
hopes to move forward the domain of the specifics of growing food and
growing communities. The area of urban agriculture presents challenges
and opportunities in space and place, safeguards for public health, and
environmental stress. Technology has many opportunities
to play in the different aspects of growing, and HCI innovations are well
positioned to understand and respond to the challenges of the environment
in which people grow food.

*** PARTICIPATION ***

We invite position papers up to four pages in Springer LNCS format that
address one of the three themes described below. Submissions outside
these areas will be considered depending on their relevant contribution
to the fields of urban agriculture, HCI, and design

Individual Growth – Focused on the scale of an individual or household,
gardening and food production is often limited to a backyard or windowsill.
Individuals and households may engage with different information sources
or communities to learn and understand the practice of urban agriculture,
but they may lack the ability to distinguish the quality of the information
sources.

Communities – Urban agriculture often relies upon cooperation. In many
cases with city farms or community gardens there is a dependence on
volunteer participation, and resources are often very limited. This
provides a challenge for urban designers and technologists to contribute
to the resilience of these urban agriculture communities, and support the
longevity of their practice. Additionally, it provides a challenge to
service designers to help setting and organizing the communities that
manage the gardens.

Environmental Sustainability – Food miles present a significant
environmental issue. While large scale remote farming has some advantages,
food subject to traveling large distances, time in transit and multiple
levels of processing and packaging, may suffer from reduced freshness,
reduced vitality and lack of local variation. Local growing and gardening
encourages more plant life within urban boundaries, and represents an
effective use of available space. As local growing serves to remove
dependency on crops grown elsewhere, it provides a level of food security
to the urbanites.

*** SUBMISSION ***

We invite position papers up to four pages in Springer LNCS format.
Please send your submissions to workshop chairs Peter Lyle (
[log in to unmask])
and Jaz Hee-jeong Choi ([log in to unmask]) by May 12th.

Authors will be notified of acceptance by May 22nd.

Accepted submissions will be published on the workshop’s webpage
(http://www.urbaninformatics.net/resources/interact2013cfp/).
In addition we are reviewing options for a special issue on the topic
of Urban Agriculture and HCI (to be discussed at the workshop).

*** ORGANISERS ***

Peter Lyle (1), Jaz Choi (1), Shaun Lawson (2), Christopher Lueg (3),
Alan Chamberlain (4), Marcus Foth (1), Anna Meroni (5), Margot Brereton (1)

(1) Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
(2) Lincoln University, Lincoln, UK
(3) University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
(4) Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK
(5) Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

*** CONTACT ***

More details to be found on the workshop website:
http://www.urbaninformatics.net/resources/interact2013cfp/
For any further information on the workshop please contact:
Peter Lyle ([log in to unmask])

Feel free to forward this email to anybody who is working in this field
and might be interested in participating.



-- 
_______________________________
*
*
*Leonardo Parra-Agudelo*
Ph.D. Student
Urban Informatics Research Lab.
School of Design. Creative Industries Faculty.
Queensland University of Technology
130 Victoria Park Road. Kelvin Grove. Qld, 4059 Australia
Phone +61 7 3138 8238 - Fax x88238 - Mobile +61 421 193 220
[log in to unmask]

*http://www.urbaninformatics.net*
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