Apologies for any cross posts. 

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~~ HCI at the End of Life ~~
~~ Understanding Death, Dying, and the Digital ~~
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A workshop to be held at CHI 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia on April 10, 2010

Workshop website: http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~mikem/hcieol/
Submission deadline: January 6, 2010

*Workshop Description*
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As computing increasingly pervades all aspects of our daily lives, it is
becoming important to consider the implications of technology at the end of the
lifespan. This workshop offers an opportunity to explore the ways in which
computing intersects with issues of mortality, dying, and death. Potential
topics include, but are not limited to: digital memorials; social networking
sites and the deceased; examinations of cultural, social, legal or technological
practice surrounding dying or death; professional and lay-person perspectives;
and the design of technological artifacts which engage these issues in new (and
possibly provocative) ways. This workshop therefore intends to address how death
is managed, marked and reacted to in the digital/technological age.

*Themes*
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Conceptualizing the design space surrounding end-of-life practice
requires an interdisciplinary, open-minded, and culturally sensitive
approach. This workshop will bring together researchers and
practitioners to address the following themes:

- Technology & Design: Computationally enhanced artifacts which help
groups of people to share, remember, and relate to the deceased or
dying. Examples include technology heirlooms, online memorials,
electronic gravestones/memorials/shrines, or traditional desktop
software which addresses mortality, death, and dying in unique or novel
ways.

- Social Practices: Obtaining a better understanding of how technology
and other artifacts are appropriated, used, discarded, or incorporated
into social practices surrounding death. Topics in this theme may
include ethnographic analyses of end-of-life issues, sociological models of
practice, culture-specific practices, or other forms of empirical qualitative
research focused on the intersection of mortality, dying, death, and technology
(e.g., interviews, questionnaires, surveys).

- Humanities and Cultural Studies: Insights related to mortality, dying,and
death as understood in fields traditionally underrepresented in HCI (including,
but certainly not limited to: archaeology, religion, anthropology, sociology,
literature, philosophy, or the arts). Understanding how to incorporate these
themes into research or design practice will be a major component of this
workshop.

- Research Methodology and Evaluation: Discussions of how to conduct
thanatosensitive research (that is, research is sensitive to issues of
dying, death, and mortality). Topics of interest include (but are not
limited to): epistemological approaches, empirical methods, conceptual
or theoretical frameworks, analysis procedures, and standards and
metrics for evaluation of systems. Discussions will also include how to conduct
ethical and respectful research, either with respect to a
particular methodology/setting, or more generally across contexts.

*Call for Submissions*
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Participants are requested to submit a 2-4 page position paper in the
CHI Archival format. Papers will be accepted based on originality and
quality, and will represent a spectrum of viewpoints. Submissions from
underrepresented disciplines in the HCI community will be particularly
welcome (e.g., archaeology, religion, anthropology, literature,
philosophy, or the arts).

At least one author must register for and attend the workshop, in
addition to registering for at least one day of the CHI conference.

Submissions are due by January 6, 2010. For more information, please see the
workshop webpage at http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~mikem/hcieol/

*Organizers*
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Michael Massimi, University of Toronto, Canada
William Odom, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
David Kirk, University of Nottingham, UK
Richard Banks, Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK