Andrew Chadwick is on the programme committee for this conference. Please direct all enquiries to the Institute for Communications Studies at Leeds (email at the bottom of the message).

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** SUBMISSIONS DUE MARCH 1 ***

Fourth International Conference on
Online Deliberation (OD2010)
(http://www.od2010.dico.unimi.it/)

30 June 2 July, 2010

Leeds, UK

Sponsored by: The University of Leeds, the Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione Universit degli Studi di Milano, and the Public Sphere Project. discuss specific advances in online deliberation from a number of different disciplinary perspectives.

The widespread diffusion of the Internet and a growing trend towards democratisation worldwide have encouraged new modes, projects and visions of citizen participation in decision making and governance.

OD2010 aims to bring together researchers, developers and practitioners from a wide range of academic and applied backgrounds to provide a unique opportunity to better understand the notion of deliberation in a virtual environment and to discuss specific advances in online deliberation from a number of different disciplinary perspectives.

The conference is aimed at those who wish to update themselves on recent developments in online deliberation, understand how other groups are applying the tools and techniques and exchange ideas with leading international experts.

OD2010 follows the traditions of previous high-level scientific conferences. It is organized by key experts in the field and is supported by a multidisciplinary programme committee. This is the first time the conference has been held outside the USA.

The fourth OD conference focuses on, but is not limited to, the following topics:

   * current research on online deliberation;
   * research challenges which deliberation, and in particular online deliberation, pose for researchers, governments, communities and citizens;
   * socio-technical design of online deliberative spaces;
   * links between theories of deliberative democracy with experience with online deliberation;
   * descriptions of tools and techniques that are already being tested or fielded;
   * deliberative platforms using novel or unusual settings, technology or approaches;
   * experiences and findings related to relevant technological theories (such as Web 2.0) and/or relevant social theories of deliberation and governance (such as public sphere, government 2.0 and civic intelligence); and
   * case studies in applying and evaluating online deliberation in various formal and informal engagement domains.

Special Issue of Journal of Information Technology & Politics

Conference participants are invited to submit their papers to a peer-review process for publication in a special issue of the Journal of Information Technology & Politics (www.jitp.net) connected with the conference. The special issue will focus on the development of online deliberation research and the future directions of the field. Guidelines for papers and other submissions

The conference allows for four distinct types of submissions:

  1. Research papers
  2. Exploratory papers on ongoing research and innovative projects
  3. Technology demonstrators
  4. Panels on pertinent issues

Research papers

These papers should have a strong focus on scientific rigour and may be a maximum of 10 pages. Papers in this track will be peer reviewed for rigour, relevance, originality and clarity of presentation. Abstracts or incomplete papers will not be accepted.

Exploratory papers

These papers describe novel concepts, works-in-progress, reflections, manifestos or other ideas and issues that are not currently suitable for a complete research paper. They may be a maximum of 5 pages. Papers in this section will also be peer reviewed, but the focus is on relevance more than scientific rigour.

Technology Demonstrators

Proposals for technology demonstrators (two pages) should include a description, objectives, examples of testing and application and, if possible, a URL where the technology can be viewed.

Panels

Proposals for panels (two pages) should include motivation, objectives, expected outcomes, approach to audience interaction and panel members. Panels are currently planned to be 1.5 hours long.

All submissions must be made via the conference submission system web site. Submissions should be written in English and foreign speakers are encouraged to have their submissions reviewed for language prior to submission. Submissions should be formatted using 11 point Times-Roman font on A4 sized paper. Accepted research and exploratory papers should be revised according to reviewer comments and resubmitted by the deadline.

Important Dates (note new deadlines)

January 1, 2010 Submission system available
March 1, 2010 Early registration begins
March 1, 2010 Research paper submissions due
March 1, 2010 Exploratory papers due
March 1, 2010 Technology Demonstrators & Panel proposals due
March 31, 2010 Notices of paper acceptances
May 1, 2010 Completed research and exploratory papers due
May 1, 2010 Late registration begins
June 30-July 2, 2010 OD 2010

Conference Chairs

Stephen Coleman, Centre for Digital Citizenship, University of Leeds, UK
Ann Macintosh, Centre for Digital Citizenship, University of Leeds, UK
Fiorella De Cindio, Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione, Universit degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Organising Chairs

Giles Moss, Deputy Director Centre for Digital Citizenship, University of Leeds, UK
Cristian Peraboni, Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione, Universit degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Previous Conference Chairs and on-going supporters

Robert Cavalier, Department of Philosophy and Digital Media Lab, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Todd Davies, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University, USA
Douglas Schuler, The Evergreen State College, and The Public Sphere Project, USA
Peter Shane, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University and Knight Commission on the Internet Needs of Communities in a Democracy, USA

Programme Committee

Simon Buckingham-Shum, Open University, UK
Robert Cavalier, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Andrew Chadwick, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Fiorella De Cindio, Universit degli Studi di Milano, Italy
Steven Clift, Publicus.net/E-Democracy.org
Stephen Coleman, University of Leeds, UK
Clelia Colombo, Generalitat of Catalonia, Spain
Todd Davies, Stanford University, USA
Peter Day, University of Brighton, UK
Simon Delakorda, Institute of Ecology, Slovenia
Thomas Erickson, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA
Marcus Foth, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Tom Gordon, Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communications Systems (FOKUS), Germany
Mary Griffiths, University of Adelaide, Australia
Andrea Kavanaugh, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
Brian Loader, University of York, UK
Euripides Loukis, University of the Aegean, Greece
Ann Macintosh, University of Leeds, UK
Giles Moss, University of Leeds, UK
David Osimo, tech4i2.com
Cristian Peraboni, Universit degli Studi di Milano, Italy
David Price, Debategraph, UK
Paul Resnick, University of Michigan, USA
Warren Sack, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Peter Shane, The Ohio State University, USA
Douglas Schuler, The Evergreen State College, and The Public Sphere Project, USA
Stuart Shulman, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Jennifer Stromer-Galley, University at Albany, USA
Peter van den Besselaar, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Terry Winograd, Stanford University, USA
Scott Wright, University of East Anglia, UK

For further information please email: ics-conferences@leeds.ac.uk

OD2010 website: http://www.od2010.dico.unimi.it/

Links to previous OD conferences: http://online-deliberation.net