Northwestern Media, Technology & Society Graduate Student Conference

Infosocial: Where information and the social sciences collide

A Graduate student conference hosted by the Media, Technology and Society (MTS) program at Northwestern university

As the information infrastructure of contemporary social life becomes increasingly complex and visible, disparate modes of inquiry converge. We are surrounded by a proliferation of data that reveal a wide array of individual and collective behavior. The changes in the visibility and availability of such data have challenged the technical and conceptual boundaries of the social sciences, prompting increasing cross-discipline collaboration and methodological and theoretical cross-over. This cross field convergence and the explosion of data offer exciting opportunities for methodological and theoretical development. Infosocial aims to explore these areas by bringing together junior researchers from across the academic spectrum.

Infosocial seeks scholarly work spanning the methodological and theoretical intersections between fields including contributions from sociology, psychology, communication studies, computer science, technology studies, media studies, and more. There will be both presentation and poster sessions.

Possible submission topics include (but are not limited to):

• Linked data/semantic web and society
• Privacy and information management
• Measuring online behavior
• Collective action and crowd sourcing
• Internet skill and literacy
• Open source and innovation
• Complexity and technological change
• History and information
• Information at work
• Educational technology
• Networks and the information society
• Methodological developments

Important Information:
Extended abstract (500 words) submission deadline (for both presentations and posters): March 15th, 2012
Acceptance notification date: Mid-May

Conference location: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

To submit, please visit www.bit.ly/NUMTS2012conference and upload an extended abstract of no more than 500 words.

Note: There will be no fee to attend and/or participate in the conference.

Meals will be provided and interested attendees can request to be housed with Northwestern students.