Community Informatics Workshop, Sunday, October 15, 2006

You are invited to attend the Community Informatics workshop at the University of Michigan School of Information, to be held on Sunday, 15 October 2006 before the beginning of the iSchools conference. Organizers This event is jointly sponsored by the Commuity Informatics Initiative at the University of Illinois (Ann Bishop and Chip Bruce), the Community Information Corps at the University of Michigan (Steve Jackson, Maurita Holland, Joan Durrance, Paul Resnick, Dan Atkins, and Edward Vielmetti), and CRACIN at the University of Toronto (Nadia Caidi and Andrew Clement). Conference themes The pre-workshop discussion identified some themes of common interest to the event organizers. We're expecting that the day will touch on these and more topics as things proceed. * conceptual foundations of community informatics * research opportunities * design of curriculums and courses * professional practice * civic engagement and advocacy The lunch session (noon to 2 pm) is long in order to provide time for people to present posters or other artifacts to share with conference participants and to talk about the projects they are working on. If you are interested in bringing an artifact or displaying a poster to showcase your current research, please email the title, authors' contact, and a brief abstract to Nadia Caidi (caidi@fis.utoronto.ca) by October 10, 2006. An intended output from the event is a shared vision statement from participants which will be presented at a community informatics session at the iSchool conference, and we will allot time at the end of the day to synthesize some of the discussion into that. Where The University of Michigan School of Information is hosting this workshop. The school web site provides directions. For those attending the iSchool conference, West Hall is about a ten minute walk across campus from the Rackham Building, and we'll be meeting in the Erlicher Room on the fourth floor. Follow the signs. When The Community Informatics Workshop, 2006 is an all day event that will begin at 9:30 AM on Sunday, October 14, 2006 and will end at 5:00 PM that day. Here is the tentative schedule of the day, though it will be revised in the opening session to match the needs and interests of the people who arrive. * 9:30 am: introduction and welcome; participant introductions and agenda setting * 10:00 - 4:00 pm: agenda as set by participants, to include a poster session, five or more working sessions, lunch, and breaks for conversation * 4:00 - 5:00 pm: recap of day; joint session to present and prepare community informatics vision statement The agenda is subject to revision at the opening session. Where to Stay Rooms for iConference attendees have been reserved in blocks at three area hotels. See the accomodations page on the iConference web site for details. Registration To register for this event, you can append a comment to the page http://cic.si.umich.edu/node/520, or send an email to Edward Vielmetti at emv@umich.edu . Please include a brief statement of your background and the nature of your current interests and activities in the realm of community informatics. since our time at the workshop is brief, the statements will be used to help us get to know each other, and to have a lasting record of the growing community of interest in CI. If you cannot attend for whatever reason but would like to send regrets or be informed of future similar events, we'd like that information as well.