Workshop 2006

Virtuality and Society: Emerging Themes (IFIP WG 9.5)

June 16, 2006
LSE, UK

Organizers:
Dr Niki Panteli, University of Bath, UK
Professor Dr Wolfgang Coy, Humboldt University, Germany
Professor Chrisanthi Avgerou, LSE, UK

SCOPE & THEME
The theme of the workshop is to survey the globality of virtuality, the complex, emergent and changing nature of this field and to act as a location for transdisciplinary work on virtuality. We aim to promote a dialogue and mutual exchange and for this we encourage contributions from a diverse set of disciplines such as computing, information systems, media studies, social theory and philosophy but also anthropology, organizational studies, gender studies, politics and ethics.

The workshop will be under the auspices of the IFIP Working Group 9.5 (Virtuality & Society) which sees information and communication technologies as being intertwined with society. In this sense, virtuality is taken as constituting both the social and the technical modes of existence. The scope of the working group is all aspects of virtuality as evident in a multiplicity of empirical sites and social phenomena.

The aim of the workshop is twofold: a) to serve as an informal forum where participants will have the opportunity to explore different dimensions of virtuality and b) to launch the activities of the IFIP Working Group 9.5 (Virtuality & Society) and subsequently lead to a major conference in this field, tentatively planned for 2008.

Given the theme of the workshop, possible topics include:
• Theories of virtuality
• Ethics of virtuality
• Virtual media and art
• Computing games
• Internet studies
• Organizational Aspects of Virtuality
• Virtual politics and political web-sites
• Virtual reality

A selection of papers presented at the workshop will subsequently be reviewed for publication. For further information please email: Virtuality&Society@management.bath.ac
IFIP Working Group 9.5 ‘Virtuality & Society’

First International Workshop on
Virtuality and Society: Emerging Themes (IFIP WG 9.5)

June 16, 2006

London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
VENUE: H103 /Connaught House

Programme of the Day

9:00 to 9:30
Registration

9:30 – 9:45
Welcome and Introduction
Chrisanthi Avgerou

9:50 – 11:30
THEME A: The Nature of Virtuality

Chair: Niki Panteli

“Actual Virtuality: The Arts”
By Martin Warnke, University of Luneburg, Germany

“The Becoming Nature of Virtuality: Emergence of the Linux Collective”
By Tony Cornford and Maha Shaikh, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

“An Interdisciplinary approach to analyzing virtuality in organisational team contexts”
By Christin Schmidt, Bryan K.Temple*, Ann McCready*, Julian Newman* & Susanne C. Kinzler**
University of Applied Sciences, Saarbrucken, Germany
*Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
**University of Applied Sciences, Aalen, Germany

“Shifting Meaning of Virtuality & Organisational Work: An exploratory study in the global UK chemical engineering industry”
By Maria Katsorchi-Hayes & Paul Dunning – Lewis, Lancaster University, UK

11:30 – 11:45
BREAK

11:45 – 13:00
THEME B: Organizational Issues of Virtuality

Chair: Helena Karsten

“A Study on how participants in Persistent Virtual Environments interpret and constitute the meanings of their actions”
By Anthony Papargyris & Angeliki Poulymenakou, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece

“Virtuality and Weak Ties: Building Social Capital”
By Keith Dixon & Niki Panteli, University of Bath, UK

“Politics and Virtual Team Effectiveness”
By Velvet Weems Landinhgham, Kent State University, USA

13:00 – 14:00
LUNCH

14:00 – 14:50
THEME C: Pervasiveness of Virtuality (Part 1)

Chair: Angeliki Poulymenakou

“Determining the criminality of virtual activity: the case of a multi-level marketing participant’s selling of web hosting services”
By: Mike Chiasson, Lancaster University, UK

“Emergent Identification: The Case of a Born Global Organisation”
By Lin Yan, University of Wales Lampeter, UK

14:50 – 15:10
BREAK

15:10 – 16:00
THEME C: Pervasiveness of Virtuality (Part 2)

Chair: Maria Woerndl

“Organising Virtual Contracts: The case of e-volunteering”
By Elizabeth Duncan, Remote-Work Management, UK

“Global Pervasive Environmental Game”
By Helena Karsten, Joonas Peltola & Janne Konttila, University of Turku, Finland

16:00 -17:00

PLENARY & Launch of IFIP W.G 9.5

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