The powers of the Nets can be construed in many ways - political, economic, and social. Power can also be construed in terms of Foucault's "positive power" and Bourdieu's notion of "cultural capital" - decentered forms of power that encourage "voluntary" submission, such as English as a lingua franca on the Net. Similarly, Hofstede's category of "power distance" points to the role of status in encouraging technology diffusion, as low-status persons seek to emulate high-status persons. Through these diverse forms of power, the language(s) and media of the Net may reshape the cultural assumptions of its globally-distributed users - thus raising the dangers of "computer-mediated colonisation" ("Disneyfication" - a la Cees Hamelink).

This biennial conference series aims to provide an international forum for the presentation and discussion of cutting-edge research on how diverse cultural attitudes shape the implementation and use of information and communication technologies. The conference series brings together scholars from around the globe who provide diverse perspectives, both in terms of the specific culture(s) they highlight in their presentations and discussions, and in terms of the discipline(s) through which they approach the conference theme. The first conference in the series was held in London in 1998. The second conference in the series was held in Perth in 2000.

Original full papers (especially those which connect theoretical frameworks with specific examples of cultural values, practices, etc.) and short papers (e.g. describing current research projects and preliminary results) are invited. Papers should articulate the connections between specific cultural values as well as current and/or possible future communicative practices involving information and communication technologies. We seek papers which, taken together, will help readers, researchers, and practitioners of computer-mediated communication - especially in the service of "electronic democracy" - better understand the role of diverse cultural attitudes as hindering and/or furthering the implementation of global computer communications systems.

Topics of particular interested include but are not limited to:

• Impact of information and communication technologies on local and indigenous languages and cultures.
• Politics of the electronic global village in democratising or preserving hierarchy.
• Communicative attitudes and practices in industrialised and industrialising countries.
• Role of gender in cultural expectations regarding appropriate communicative behaviours.
• Ethical issues related to information and communication technologies.
• Issues of social justice raised by the dual problems of "the digital divide" and "computer-mediated colonisation," including theoretical and practical ways of overcoming these problems.

See Submission for more deadlines and paper formats.