Proposals are invited for two panels. Accepted papers for the panels will appear in the Conference Proceedings and must be formatted according to the guidelines. See submissions for deadlines and formatting guidelines.

PANEL 1: The Multilingual Internet
Panel Chairs: Susan Herring and Brenda Danet
 
Expanding on their collective work, including a special issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, this panel invites papers with a specific focus on how the Internet impacts language choice and linguistic practices in traditionally non-English speaking cultural contexts. Of particular interest are situations that respond in various ways to the tension between global English dominance and local linguistic diversity, e.g., through use of English as an online lingua franca, the "localization" of global or regional linguistic influences, translation or code-switching between different languages, and strategic uses of the Internet to maintain and invigorate minority languages.

Submit short paper (3-5 pages) for Panel 1 to both Professor Susan Herring and Professor Brenda Danet. 
Professor Herring, Information Science and Linguistics, Indiana University Bloomington
Professor Brenda Danet, Sociology & Communication, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Emerita); Anthropology, Yale University 

PANEL 2: Utopian Dreams vs. Real-World Conditions:
Under what conditions can ICTs really help worse off communities?
Panel Chair: Michel J. Menou

CATaC'04 will likely feature some examples of "best practices" in using ICTs to aid culturally-appropriate development, especially as pursued through governmental or NGOs' projects, community informatics endeavours, etc. At the same time, however, real-world politics and realities - e.g., violent oppression, political corruption, gender and ethnic discrimination, abuse of dominant economic position, structural disasters, worst practices of all kinds and origins, etc. - can shatter the best-laid plans for using ICTs to supposedly help especially the poorest of the poor. How far can ICTs succeed in supporting culturally-appropriate development - and what appropriate answers to real-world conditions are required in order for our best efforts to realize the liberatory potentials of these technologies not be broken down? 
Michel Menou, has worked on the development of national information policies and systems in many countries of the Southern hemisphere since 1966. Since 1992 his work focused on the impact of information and ICT in development. He is a member of the Community Informatics Research Network and of the network of Telecentres of Latin America and Caribbean.

Full or short papers (in English) for Panel 2 are to be emailed to Michel Menou, Michel.Menou@wanadoo.fr. Colleagues who have difficulty writing a paper in English may obtain advance guidance by sending, as soon as possible, a short and precise outline (500 words maximum) of their proposed
contributions for Panel 2 to Professor Menou, in French, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish.