Designing the Internet of Things for Workplace Realities (CFP)

Designing the Internet of Things for Workplace Realities:
Social and Cultural Aspects in Design and Organisation

A Workshop held in conjunction with
Internet of Things 2008
International Conference for Industry and Academia
March 26, 2008 / Zurich

Extended Submission deadline:
January 23, 2008
January 12, 2008


Workshop Theme


The rise of the Internet of Things has important socio-technical implications for organisations. While ubiquitous and wireless technologies are developed to enable new ways of working, to increase safety and to facilitate coordination, they may interfere with established work practices, undermine productivity and individuals’ satisfaction, and have an unforeseen impact on relations of power and control. These issues, however, are rarely addressed in development and research projects for the Internet of Things and in the public discourses surrounding it. We are interested in research, that addresses a wide range of social and organisational issues, such as organisational flexibility, organisational alignment, working roles, practices and strategies, and power and control.

The workshop has the goal to increase awareness of organisational issues of the Internet of Things and to provide a forum for discussion of design approaches to manage critical organisational issues. Furthermore we would like to build a bridge between the various research communities exploring organisational, social and cultural aspects of the Internet of Things and ubiquitous computing. A multitude of methods and guidelines (e.g. participatory design, work place studies, ethnomethodology, resilience engineering, socio-technical system approach, scenario-based design, ANT) have been developed to address organisational, human and social issues in technology design, deployment and use. However, those methods have often not yet been adopted and tested for the Internet of Things or ubiquitous computing. We encourage submissions presenting a particular design method to address social, cultural and organisational perspectives or relating experiences from modeling these processes within research and development projects.

The Internet of Things is emerging as a powerful force for reshaping organisational and social realities, potentially affecting the (work)lives of millions of people. Current political agendas, a rising awareness of health and safety issues, security, and new legal requirements due to the European legislation often first cause the need for a new (ubiquitous) technological system and also have an impact on the role ubiquitous computing plays. We welcome especially attempts to gauge the wider implications of these developments on society and culture that then in turn have an impact on organisations and workplaces. We not only want to consider the impact of the Internet of Things but rather understand those technologies and the surrounding cultural and social logics in a co-constitutive process.

Scope


We welcome contributions that investigate the Internet of Things and ubiquitous computing from a technical, organisational, cultural and social perspective from areas such as organisational studies, science and technology studies, anthropology and human computer interaction. We are especially interested in papers by practitioners, technologists, designers and social scientists and contributions that are interdisciplinary.

Position papers on the following topics are welcome:

  • Organisational drivers and issues of the Internet of Things
  • Adoption and use of Internet of Things technologies in organisations
  • Real world case studies of Internet of Things applications in organisations
  • The Internet of Things as a socio-technical system
  • The alignment of the Internet of Things to workplace realities
  • Design methods and processes that address organisational, cultural and social issues
  • Methods that address how to manage opportunities and risks associated with the Internet of Things
  • Public perception of and discourse about the Internet of Things (and the impact on technology development and adoption)
  • High level and general drivers of the internet of things such as risk and information society
  • Conceptual frameworks for the Internet of Things

Format


The workshop will be highly interactive to maximise information exchange and foster collaborations. Three or four issues will be set as the agenda of the workshop. The activities will be based on the position papers and on the participants’ background. Major workshop activities will take place in discussion groups following presentations of workshop participants and invited keynote speakers. The selection of workshop participants is based on submitted position papers describing ongoing research and experiences.

Submission Guidelines


We solicit papers describing original research. Contributions should cover current, ongoing or recently concluded work and cannot in this version have been published elsewhere. The position paper should address at least one relevant organisational or social issue of the Internet of Things and will be peer reviewed by an international program committee.

All accepted papers will be published in the official adjunct proceedings of the Internet of Things conference.

Manuscripts must be limited to 6 pages in IEEE 8.5x11 conference format, and formatted in strict accordance with the IEEE Computer Society author guidelines. For simplicity, you might want to make use of the official manuscript templates.

Please forward the workshop paper to social-iot@comp.lancs.ac.uk in PDF format.

Important Dates


January 23, 2008: Submission Deadline - Extended
February 14, 2008: Notification of acceptance
February 18, 2008: Early registration deadline
March 1, 2008: Submission deadline for camera-ready papers
March 26, 2008: Workshop

Date and Place


This workshop will be held on March 26, 2007 in Zurich, at the Conference Hotel of Internet of Things 2008, the International Conference for Industry and Academia.

Program Committee

  • Abraham Bernstein, University of Zurich, Switzerland
  • Monika Büscher, Lancaster University, UK
  • Paul Devadoss, Lancaster University, UK
  • Gudela Grote, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • Stephan Haller, SAP Research
  • Lorenz Hilty, EMPA, Switzerland
  • Erik Hollnagel, Ecoles des Mines de Paris, France
  • Kalle Lyytinnen, Case Western Reserve University, USA
  • Martina Merz, University Lucerne, Switzerland
  • Werner Rammert, Technical University Berlin, Germany
  • George Roussos, University of London, UK
  • Saadi Lahlou, R&D, Laboratory of Design for Cognition, France
  • Craig Shepherd, University of Leeds, UK
  • Nils Zurawski, University of Hamburg, Germany
Additional PC members will be added soon.

Organization


Daniel Boos, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Katharina Kinder, Lancaster University, UK
Gerd Kortuem, Lancaster University, UK

For further information please contact the workshop organisers at social-iot@comp.lancs.ac.uk.

Workshop website: http://ubicomp.lancs.ac.uk/workshops/social-iot2008/
CFP: http://ubicomp.lancs.ac.uk/workshops/social-iot2008/assets/cfp.pdf