Third Call for Participation - ASIS&T - Initiatives in Africa

*******Third Call for Participation********

ASIS&T 2007:  North American Information Initiatives in
Sub-Saharan Africa
(NAIISA): Social Computing and Communication Environments
and Implications
Tuesday, October 23, 2007, 2:15 p.m.

Ad hoc, informal meetings, originally coined the “Africa
Forum,” have been held
at several previous ASIS&T and ALISE meetings for
persons interested and
involved in information-related activities in Sub-Saharan
Africa.  Recently,
there has been increasing interest in information
initiatives in Africa, as
evidenced by the increasing attendance at these meetings,
resulting in the
adoption of the name at ASIS&T 2006, North American
Information Initiatives in
Sub-Saharan Africa (NAIISA).  

This year’s NAIISA session will focus on establishing
information-related
priorities regarding the role of social computing and
communications in
Sub-Saharan Africa.  This region of the world, like many
developing areas,
presents a variety of concerns about the role of computing
and its effects on
culture and society.  While most Sub-Saharan countries are
committed to goals
of national development and want to bring about fundamental
changes that will
improve the lives of African peoples, the successful
integration of computing
and other forms of communication leading to positive social
change depends upon
a number of factors. The focus of the NAIISA session this
year will be on
issues surrounding the use and influence of computing and
communications within
the Sub-Saharan Africa, the identification of benefits and
obstacles for social
computing in the region.  Specifically, this session will
consider:

•        In what ways are social computing and
communications contributing to
significant behavioral or attitudinal changes in Sub-Saharan
Africa?  How do we
assess these changes? 
•        Is the information world getting flatter? What can
we learn from
Sub-Saharan
perspectives?  
•        In what ways does web 2.0 influence the way
information is created,
represented, organized, stored, retrieved, and disseminated
in Sub-Saharan
Africa? 
•        In what ways are the new trends in social computing
and communications
affecting information science education and practice in
Sub-Saharan Africa?

At this session, participants will discuss their
projects/research; formal
papers are not expected.  The focus of this session will be
on establishing
information related priorities regarding the role of social
computing in the
region.  Each participant should prepare a brief (1-2) page
description of what
they consider to be the related information priorities for
SSA which will be
discussed at the meeting.  The results will serve as a
baseline for comparison
with a similar process (and results) at a meeting in African
in 2008.

Please contact Kendra Albright, University of Sheffield,
with any questions:
k.albrightsheffield.ac.uk.


____
2007 ASIS&T Annual Meeting
Joining Research and Practice: Social Computing
and Information Science,
October 19-24, in Milwaukee
Plenaries: Anthea Stratigos, Outsell (research and advisory
firm) 
Clifford Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information
http://www.asis
.org/Conferences/AM07/

________________________________________
Asis-l mailing list
Asis-lasis.org
http://m
ail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/asis-l