Our NordiCHI workshop is ON!

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Back in the beginning of May, I wrote a blog post about the proposal for a NordiCHI workshop that we submitted, "Is there a European strand of Sustainable HCI?". In the beginning of June, I mentioned that the proposal had been accepted that the workshop will be organised at the NordiCHI conference in Helsinki at the end of October.

No less than 20 pre-conference workshops will be held on Sunday October 26 and Monday October 27 and our workshop (workshop 8 on this list) will be held on Sunday. I might consider attending one of the 10 workshops that will be held on Monday. The purpose of this blog post is however first and foremost to promote our workshop and we and we are just in the process of sending out the following call for participation to a variety of relevant distribution lists (please cut and paste and distribute as you see fit!):

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Call for participation - please distribute as you see fit!

NordiCHI’14 Workshop: Is there a European strand of sustainable HCI?

Sunday, October 26th, 2014: Helsinki, Finland

Workshop web site: http://hci4s.wordpress.com/

Deadline for submissions (1-4 pages position papers in the ACM Paper format): August 14th, 2014.

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Sustainability is a well established topic at the CHI conference – but not at NordiCHI. The discourse around sustainability differs (sometimes markedly) between Europe and the US. This implies that there are differences also in terms of framing problems of interest, choice of methods, and proposed solutions. It must therefore also be possible to conduct new, innovative research within a European context. With this workshop, we aim to identify, discuss and cultivate a uniquely European strand of Sustainable HCI research, as well as to develop an agenda for future research in the area. Be part of creating that vision at the inaugural Sustainable HCI NordiCHI workshop!

We invite researchers, designers, and practitioners who are doing, or who want to do, research within Sustainable HCI to this workshop. Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to:

   • What are the emerging characteristics of a European perspective on sustainability? What is different or unique about European Sustainable HCI research? What are our strengths and weaknesses?
   • What are the unique challenges or opportunities for sustainability research in Europe, and how might this differ from other perspectives (e.g. North America, Asia and elsewhere)?
   • Where should the Sustainable HCI community be heading in terms of research outputs?
   • What is (or should) the relationship be between research and other stakeholders (policymakers, industry, media, activists, citizens)?
   • How can we help broaden our collective networks, for example in terms of helping researchers and research groups find prospective partners for future EU research grant applications (e.g. Horizon 2020)?

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You can choose to contribute to the workshop with two different types of position papers:

- Established Sustainable HCI researchers seeking to participate are asked to submit position papers that addresses any subset of the questions above.
- Researchers new to the area are instead asked to summarize their (1) interest in the area, (2) background and approaches, (3) questions you might have in relation to the questions above.

Please send your position paper (1-4 pages in the ACM Paper format) by email to hci4sustainability@gmail.com. Deadline 14 August 2014.

Please see the workshop homepage for more information: http://hci4s.wordpress.com/

See you at NordiCHI 2014!

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Workshop organizers:
- Daniel Pargman, assistant professor, Department of Media Technology and Interaction Design (MID), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
- Elina Eriksson, PhD, Department of Media Technology and Interaction Design (MID), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
- Cecilia Katzeff, Adjunct professor, Department of Media Technology and Interaction Design (MID), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
- Chris Preist, Reader in Sustainability and Computer Systems at the University of Bristol, UK.
- Maria Håkansson, Assistant professor, Department of Applied IT, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
- Bran Knowles, Research associate, School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, UK.

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The deadline for submitting position papers (which is the "official" application to attend the workshop) is the same for all workshops (August 14). The deadline for sending out notifications (e.g. if position papers are accepted or not) is on September 11.

We are very excited about this workshop! Do consider attending it if you are interested in the intersection of sustainability and HCI (e.g. "Sustainable HCI"). We aim to make this workshop the kick-off for a sustainability track at the NordiCHI conference and our goal is nothing less than establishing Sustainable HCI as a regular topic at the NordiCHI conference. It is in fact strange that it isn't already - and we aim to change that. Several of the workshop organisers have submitted Sustainable HCI-related papers to the conference and I also plan to submit a proposal for a panel at the conference. Our 30-word workshop contribution statement is:

Sustainability is by now a well established topic at the CHI conference, but not yet at NordiCHI. Be part of creating the vision at the inaugural Sustainable HCI NordiCHI workshop!

Join the party! Join the revolution!? For more information about the workshop, see the workshop website!
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