CULTURAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION

Special Issue: Electronic Journal of Communication/La Revue Electronique de Communication (CIOS/Comserve)
International Conference: CATAC'98, 1–3 August 1998, Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London

Mirror Site: http://www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/catac/index.html

Introduction
Call for Papers
Interest Form
Registration Form
Submission
Deadlines
Committees
Addresses
Program
Accommodation
Venue
Sponsors

Special Issue
3rd Quarter 1998
ejcrec@lib.drury.edu

Conference
1-3 August 1998
ejcrec@lib.drury.edu

P R O G R A M
 We invite you to read the introductory chapter of the proceedings, "First Looks: CATaC'98" by Charles Ess, for an overview of the conference themes and papers (HTML or PDF (57Kb)).

All sessions of the conference (unless otherwise specified) will be held in the Fellows Room of the Science Museum. Registration will be on the first level foyer of the north entrance to the Museum. All breaks and lunches will be in the Ante Room, adjacent to the Fellows Room.

Friday 31 July

17:00-18:00 Registration Foyer of the Ante Room
18:00-19:00 Reception Ante Room

Saturday 1 August

08:45-09:00 Opening Charles Ess and Fay Sudweeks
Co-Chairs
09:00-10:00 Keynote
Speaker		 Dr John Durant
Professor of Public Understanding of Science
Imperial College, London
10:00-11:00 Session 1
The Politics of the Electronic Global Village		 Chair: Charles Ess, Drury College, USA
Understanding micropolis and compunity
     Steve Jones, University of Illinois - Chicago, USA (30m)
New kids on the net
      Herbert Hrachovec, University of Vienna, Austria (30m)
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-12:30 Session 1 (cont'd)
The Politics of the Electronic Global Village		 Chair: Charles Ess, Drury College, USA
Electronic media and civil society
     Barbara Becker, Josef Wehner, GMD, Germany (30m)
Global diffusion of interactive networks: The impact of culture
     Carleen Maitland, Michigan State University, USA (30m)
12:30-13:00 Discussion Session 1 issues
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:30 Session 2
Homogeneity, Marginalization, and the Preservation of Local Cultures		 Reflections on cultural bias and adaptation
     Daniel Pargman, Linkoping University, Sweden (30m)
Aspects of diversity, access and community networks
     Cyd Strickland, The Fielding Institute, USA (30m)
NGOs and Internet Use in Uganda: Who Benefits?
     Scott McConnell, University of Guelph, Canada (30m)
15:30-16:00 Break
16:00-16:30 Discussion Sessions 2 issues
18:00 Conference Dinner: Elizabethan Banquet, Hatfield House (bus departs from Crofton Hotel)

Sunday 2 August

09:00-10:40 Session 3
Communication in Virtual Communities

 Cybersocialism: Group consciousness and transnational communities
     Fay Sudweeks, University of Sydney, Australia (30m)
CMCs and the problem of "grounding" virtual utopias
     Cameron Richards, Queensland University of Technology, Australia (20m)
Striving for closure: Interactive ASCII art on Internet Relay Chat
     Brenda Danet, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (20m)
Attitudes towards technology and communication across the multiple cultures of Switzerland
     Lucienne Rey, TA Program, Switzerland (30m)
10:40-11:10 Break
11:10-12:30 Session 4
Sociocultural Convergence

National security and democracy on the Internet in Israel
    Michael Dahan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel   (20m)
Virtual environments as spaces of symbolic construction and cultural identity: Latin American Virtual Communities
     Jose Nocera, Simon Bolivar University, Venuezuela (20m)
Addressivity and sociability in "Celtic men"
     Jason Rutter and Greg Smith, University of Salford, UK (20m)
Cultural attitudes and technology
     Jerome Heath, North Seattle Community College, USA (20m)

12:30-13:00 Discussion Sessions 3 and 4 issues
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-16:00 Panel
Global Culture, Local Culture, and Vernacular Computing: The excluded 95% in South Asia		 Kenneth Keniston, MIT, USA (Chair)
Pat Hall, The Open University
16:00-16:30 Break
16:30-17:45 Session 5
East/West cultural attitudes and communicative practices		 Preserving communication context: Virtual workspace and interpersonal space in Japanese CSCW
     Lorna Heaton, University of New Mexico, USA (30m)
Global culture, local cultures, and the Internet: The Thai example
    Soraj Hongladarom, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand (30m)
The cultural Interface: The role of self
    Satinder Gill, NTT Basic Research Labs, Japan (20m)
17:45-18:15 Discussion Session 5 and panel issues

Monday 3 August

09:00-10:30 Session 6
Culture and the Design of Technology		 Bridging the gap: Issues in the design of computer user interfaces for multicultural communities
     Adrie Stander, Cape Technikon, South Africa (20m)
Cross-cultural understanding of metaphors in interface design
     Vanessa Evers, Open University, UK (20m)
Culture and participation in development of CMC: Indigenous cultural information system case study
     Andrew Turk, Kathryn Trees, Murdock University, Australia (20m)
 Building cyberspace: Information, place and policy
     Ken Friedman, Norwegian School of Management, Norway (20m)
10:30-11:00 Discussion Sessions 6 issues
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-12:30 Session 7
Culture and Communication in Organizations		 Why people use the world wide web: An application of uses and gratifications theory
     Diane Witmer, Chutatip Taweesuk, California State University - Fullerton, USA (30m)
Cross-cultural issues affecting information technology use in logistics
     Paul Tully, California State University - Sacramento, USA (15m)
Analysing cultural impacts of computer-mediated communication in organisations
     Heejin Lee and Richard Varey, University of Salford, UK (15m)
12:30-13:00 Discussion Sessions 7 issues
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-16:00 Plenary Summary reports from previous sessions: "Trialogue": Philosophy, Communication Theory, and Cultural Criticism
16:00-16:30 Closing Discussion
18:00- Dinner/Theatre: Optional (not included in conference fee)

Tuesday 4 August

10:00-13:00

Tour: Science Museum