Call for Papers : Emergency Management in a Mobile World

A Special Session at the
MOBILE LIFE CONFERENCES and EXHIBITIONS

– mSOCIETY 2008  – The 1st International Conference on Mobile Society
– EURO mGOV 2008 — The  3rd  European Conference on Mobile Government

15 -19 September 2008, Sheraton Voyager, Antalya, Turkey
http://www.mgovernment.org/events/index.html     mlife@mgovernment.org

Chairs:
———-
Thomas Rose, and Gertraud Peinel
Head of research department, and project manager at the Fraunhofer FIT

The domain of emergency management is a specific part of the e- and mGovernment world. The preparation for emergency events – caused by natural as well as man-made reasons – has gained increasing attention from the research community due to the potential impact of such events.

In case of major disaster, radio and television might give first hints of what to do and what to avoid but this is rarely done in coordination with the local emergency managers. Therefore, further details for the specific region of interest as well as for the specific situation characteristics (including event information like occurrence place and time, estimated duration, subjects affected, possible conditions – technical or other – for its finalisation) are not available.

Goals of this special session are therefore to
-establish the realms of emergency management as a specific topic of interest at this conference.
- discuss socio-technical methodologies for the development and deployment of IT solutions for emergency management tasks with a particular account on mobile technologies, e.g. mobility of citizens as well as rescue teams.
- elaborate the impact of mobile technologies on the emergency management life-cycle.
- discuss the role and their potential contributions of business partners to emergencies: capacities for communication channels, information relay centres, ad hoc call centres, and business models.
- relate country-specific organisational and legal frameworks, e.g. cross border procedures.
- tie relationships among research on mGovernment and crisis management: detect common problems and solutions, identify needs of actions, and show how IT solutions and new business models can restructure also the way of emergency management.

Topics for Submission include but are not limited to
- Emergency Management in a Mobile World: challenges, barriers, and opportunities
- Business models, public private partnerships
-Characteristics of mobile emergency services (e.g., reach, costs, acceptance, complexity, side-effects)
- Best practices and lessons learnt
- Planning methodologies for emergency preparation

Expected audience: Authorities, risk experts, and e/mGovernment scientists

Submissions in the form of research papers (max 10 pages) and practice talks (max 1 page) are solicited via the conferences online submission system at the
http://www.mgovernment.org/confadmin/confadmin.php
Further information on submissions and all about  the conference can be found at
http://www.mgovernment.org/events/mgov2008/home.html

For all enquiries, please write to the session chairs: thomas.rose@fit.fraunhofer.de, gertraud.peinel@fit.fraunhofer.de or the conference secreteriat mlife@mgovernment.org

Call for Papers
The 4th International Conference on Games Research and Development, CyberGames
Beijing Normal University, China October 27-30, 2008

The 4th International Conference on Games Research and Development 2008 (CyberGames 2008) will be held during October 27-30, 2008 at the Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. CyberGames aims to explore the latest developments in the computer games and interactive entertainment technologies.

Papers are invited in the following games research and development topics (but not limited to them) from both industry and academia:

• Game Platforms, Game Hardware, Game Software, Games on Grid Computing
• HCI technologies for Games, Interactive digital medias
• Simulation Games, Pervasive Entertainment
• Game Culture: Boomer vs Gamer
• Edutainment Games, Online and Multiplayer Games, Mobile and Handheld Gaming
• Games AI, Agents for Games, Game Level Design
• Game Physics, Game Mechanics

Publication

The conference proceedings will be published in ACM Digital Library. The best 6 papers from Cybergames 2008 will be invited to submit an expanded version for publication in the online journal “ACM Computers in Entertainment”.The top 50% of the papers from Cybergames 2008 will be invited to submit a revised paper for publication in the International Journal of Computer Games Technology published by Hindawi Publishing Corporation. The paper submissions must use the exact ACM SIG templates. Please find the template (Latex and Word) at http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html

Important Dates

• Full Papers Submission Deadline: May31st, 2008
• Full Papers Notification of Acceptance: July 14th, 2008
• Conference Dates: Oct. 27-30th, 2008

Conference Chair
Prof. Ge Jianping Beijing Normal University, China
Prof. Xiao Yongliang Beijing Normal University, China
Prof. Zhou Mingquan Beijing Normal University, China

For more information please visit the Conference Websites
http://www.coetechweek.com/cybergames/ (international) or
http://cybergames2008.bnu.edu.cn (China Edunet)
or send an email to CyberGames2008@bnu.edu.cn

The International Journal of Gaming and Computer Mediated Simulations (IJGCMS) is currently reviewing papers for the Spring Issue, 2009. If you have a paper that you have been working on, or you know of others that are in the process of finishing up a paper, please consider submitting your paper (or asking them to submit their paper) for review at IJGCMS. To have enough time to be reviewed for publication, manuscripts for volume #2 would need to be submitted by June 15, 2008.

The full call is available on the IJGCMS website at: http://www.igi-global.com/ijgcms. Paper submissions or questions can be sent to ijgcms@gmail.com.

Call for
Papers, Panels, Special Sessions, Tutorials, Exhibitions and Demos

mSOCIETY 2008
————————
The 1st International Conference on Mobile Society
18-19 September 2008, Sheraton Voyager, Antalya, Turkey
http://www.mgovernment.org/events/

SPONSORS, ORGANIZERS and SUPPORTERS:
— TURKCELL (Diamond Sponsor), TurkSat (Gold Sponsor)
— Mobile Government Consortium International, UK, AykeyNet, UK
— Dept. of Computer Engineering, TOBB University of Economics and
Technology, Turkey,
— Center for Information and Society, University of Washington, USA.

Mobile Society refers to the emerging trends of the collective life on
earth driven by the technology of networked mobile phones and other
mobile devices. These technologies and their fast and wide adoption
are influencing the way we live in society, the way we run businesses
and the way we are as an individual.

The First International Conference on Mobile Society (mSociety 2008)
aims to be a platform for the presentation, exchange and dissemination
of the latest developments, ideas, applications and services involving
all aspects of practice and research in mSociety.

The mSociety 2008 organization invites all professionals with an
interest in how mobility influences society in both positive and
negative ways. Possible perspectives may include, but are not limited
to, the diffusion and adoption of technology; the dissemination of
mobile content, applications and services for business and
entertainment; the economical, sociological and psychological impact
of mobility on society.

How to participate?
————————–
Please visit the conference web site for submissions, review policy
and further info at www.mgovernment.org/events/
— Researchers: send a maximum of 10 pages of a paper presenting
your research and its results.
— Members of Civil Society Organizations and Private sector
professionals: send a page long proposal for a talk presenting, for
example, an implementation, application or services deployed, cases
studied and experiences gained.

Who will attend?
— Researchers economists, technologists, sociologists and
psychologists from academic institutions and other research
organizations.
— Private Sector professionals from, for example, mobile telco`s,
infrastructure, hardware, content, applications and service providers
to _ individuals and organizations.
— Members of Public Sector, Donors and Civil Society Organizations.

Please get in touch for further information…
mSociety 2008 – msociety2008@mgovernment.org www.mgovernment.org/events/
Mobile Government Consortium International - info@mgovernment.org
Other mGCI events – www.mgovernment.org/events/

Subject: SEMINAR COMING Wednesday afternoon, April 16, 2008: Stories, Games, and Multidisciplinarity

WEDNESDAY . MERCREDI . MITTWOCH . SREDA . SREDA . BUDHVAR . XING-QI-SAN

================================================================================

Department of Computer Science Colloquium Series 2007-2008

*** Celebrating the 40th Anniversary in 2007 ***

——————————————————————————–

Stories, Games, and Multidisciplinarity

by

Gunnar Liestol, Media and Communication Department, University of Oslo

http://www.uio.no/sok?person=gunnarl&la=en

Date: Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Time: 01:30 PM (talk begins)

Place: Burns Auditorium Kamphoefner Hall,

NCSU Historical Campus <<== NOTE!!!

More info and parking: http://research.csc.ncsu.edu/colloquia/

Host: Michael Young, Computer Science/Digital Games Research Center

NOTE: If you want to schedule a meeting with the speaker,

please contact the host.

——————————————————————————–

ABSTRACT:

This presentation about multidisciplinarity in game studies will propose how concepts from literary theory (Genette and Greimas) can be applied to the analysis of computer gaming. It will also discuss in a more general way some strategies for handling multidisciplinarity in research on digital textuality, including game studies and digital design. Examples will be drawn from Professor Liestol’s current work in relation on positioning and mobility.

SHORT BIO:

Gunnar Liestol is professor at the Department of Media & Communication, University of Oslo. He has a Magister degree in General and Comparative Literature and a Dr. Philos. degree in Media studies with a thesis on Rhetorics of Hypermedia Design. He has designed mulitmedia systems in collaboration with Norwegian and International Publishing houses, and published articles and books on the theory and practice of digital media design. He is currently directing a research project on mobility, positioning and digital genre design.

——————————————————–
CALL FOR PAPERS

SPECIAL SESSION
*** Mobile Mixed Reality Games ***

3rd International Conference on Digital Interactive Media
in Entertainment and Arts (DIMEA 2008)
10-12 September 2008, Athens, Greece
http://www.dimea2008.org

Submission Deadline: April 30, 2008
——————————————————–

Mobile Mixed Reality games are games that are played in a physical
environment augmented with virtual game artifacts. While former Mixed
Reality applications were mainly stationary, advances in mobile computing
and positioning technology have made this new type of games possible.
Players wear mobile computers equipped with positioning technology,
head-mounted displays, laptops, personal digital assistants, or mobile
phones in order to play this kind of games.

Early prototypes such as ARQuake, Human Pacman, or NetAttack showed the
technical feasibility but also the potentials of mobile Mixed Reality games.
Players find it fascinating to play their own avatar, to physically move in
the game world and to directly interact and compete with their co-players.
The close integration of Mixed Reality games in the physical environment
offers a new player experience that cannot be achieved with traditional
computer or console games.

While the technology has matured since the first games in this field leading
to Mixed Reality systems running on off-the-shelf computers and there are
already some related commercial systems available such as Sony’s Eye of
Judgment, many issues related to the design, development and evaluation of
mobile Mixed Reality games are still open and need to be further researched.

We would like to invite papers to be submitted to this special session of
DIMEA 2008 that focus on one or several issues of Mobile Mixed Reality Games
including but not limited to:
. Design and evaluation of Augmented Reality and MR games
. Design guidelines for Augmented Reality or MR games
. Ethical issues of mobile Mixed Reality games
. Positioning technology for MR games including marker-based and marker-less
tracking
. MR hardware and software systems for games
. Tools for rapid prototyping of MR games

In the special session we will bring together researcher and practioneers
who work in this new and emerging field of MR games. The session will draw
the attention to the potentials of this new form of media in entertainment
and will push the state-of-the-art in this field.

*** SUBMISSIONS ***

Please note that the submission and review of papers for the Special Session
will be conducted through the same on-line system (www.dimea2008.org) used
for regular papers. Papers submitted to the Special Session should follow
the same style as regular DIMEA papers.
Authors are invited to submit full technical papers of not more than 8
pages, including tables, figures and references. Papers should present
original research related to the above mentioned scientific areas, not
published elsewhere.
Full paper submissions should adhere to the ACM SIG Proceedings style
guidelines. The respective templates may be found at:
http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html
Please use the style “Strict Adherence to SIGS style - (Sheridan Printing)”
on that page.

*** IMPORTANT DEADLINES ***

Full Paper Submission: April 30, 2008
Notification of Acceptance: May 30, 2008
Camera-ready Paper Submission: June 15, 2008

*** ORGANIZERS AND CONTACT ***

Wolfgang Broll (wolfgang.broll@fit.fraunhofer.de), Fraunhofer FIT, Germany
Irma Lindt (irma.lindt@fit.fraunhofer.de), Fraunhofer FIT, Germany

Meaningful Play 2008
October 9 - 11, 2008
East Lansing, MI, USA
http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu

Call for Submissions

Whether designed to entertain or for more “serious” purposes, games have the potential to impact players’ beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, emotions, cognitive abilities, and behavior.

Meaningful Play 2008 is an interdisciplinary academic conference that explores the potential of games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade. The conference includes thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, peer-reviewed paper presentations, panel sessions (including academic and industry discussions), innovative workshops, roundtable discussions, and exhibitions of games.

Submissions are sought from both researchers and practitioners in academia and industry. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students are also encouraged to submit either jointly with an academic/member of industry or alone.

While any topic related to games for entertainment and learning is appropriate to submit to Meaningful Play 2008, topics of particular interest include:

1) Exploring meaningful applications of games

* Games to change attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (including social impact games and personal health games)
* Games to stimulate creativity or innovation
* Games to build social skills
* Games to advertise (advergames) and persuade
* Games to exercise specific cognitive functions
* Games to explore personal beliefs and help make decisions
* Games to build knowledge and skills (games for learning)
* Serious games for history and cultural heritage learning

2) Issues in designing meaningful play

* Game design for specific audience segments
* Player types and play styles
* Story and storytelling in games
* Competitve and cooperative play (single player, multiplayer and massively multiplayer)
* Balancing entertainment and serious goals
* Repurposing entertainment games for serious purposes
* Unintended and unexpected effects of games
* Using psychology and neuroscience to design and understand games
* Evaluation and assessment of game impacts
* Barriers to the adoption of serious game

Submission deadline is July 1, 2008.

Complete details on Meaningful Play 2008 are available at:
http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu

The special topics class: Introduction to 3D Game Technology is available
to non-Design students. Students will
need to contact the instructor to register.

Home
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~twbuie/id292-582/id292-582index.html

TRACS
http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/reg_records/tracs_bk/fall/courses/ID.html#ID292

********************************************************************
*** Mobile Gaming ‘08 ***
*** Workshop @ Informatik 2008 in Munich ***
*** http://sam.iai.uni-bonn.de/mobile-gaming/ ***
********************************************************************

OVERVIEW

Mobile Games rely on physical movement of players in a world that
weaves the real environment and virtual dimensions together. They
combine two gaming traditions in a novel way, which have been mutual
exclusive till now: outdoor games and computer games.

Game design is facing new challenges. Currently only few games
exploit the potential, which is offered by augmented and mixed
reality, global networking, location-awareness and sensors. Theory
and methodology to survey mobile gaming experiences are far from
maturity. The question is, how to understand mobility and physical
movement within mixed game worlds? How to study gaming experiences of
mobile players, who are moving independently through urban space?
What are the roles of the player’s community and its culture for
playing games?

Development and design of mobile games are challenging us with core
issues of ubiquitous computing, the complexity of mobile, distributed
systems, the particular dynamics of game situations and the changing
contexts, the diversity of actors, using the technology, and the
issues of interaction beyond the desk, encompassing the player¹s
body, multiple human senses and diverse usage modes. The
diversification of hard- and software leads to additional challenges
regarding interoperability and calls for flexible frameworks
supporting the integration.

This workshop aims to increase the perception of mobile gaming as a
rich domain for research in many directions in the German-speaking
science and market area. We invite researchers and developers to
exchange their experiences, identify urging research issues and to
look for ways how to exploit and enhance the basic conditions for
research in this domain.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

We invite technical papers and position statements
to be submitted to the workshop. The workshop
topics include, but are not limited to:

Experience and design of mobile games:
€ mobile gaming experience and gaming activities
€ physical movement in mixed reality settings and embodied interaction
€ mobile games in everyday life: the magic circle of play and its
spatial, temporal and social expansions
€ reinterpretation of traditional games as digital mobile games
€ mobile edutainment - the didactical potential of mobile games
€ serious games: teaching complex processes based on pervasive
technology
€ mobile gaming as testbed for business cases

Technical challenges of mobile games:
€ augmented and mixed reality in mobile games
€ gaming context: predictable and unforeseeable context dimensions
€ user interfaces for mobile games
€ graspable interaction: sensors and actors in mobile games
€ technologies for location-awareness and positioning
€ recording and replayability of mobile games
€ supporting the large variety of hard- and software systems:
problems and solutions
€ using technological limitations creatively

DATES AND DEADLINES

Paper submission: April 28, 2008
Notification of authors: June 2, 2008
Camera ready version due: July 1, 2008
Workshop Mobile Gaming ‘08: September 9, 2008

FORM OF SUBMISSION

The workshop aims to offer a forum for presentation and discussion
of new research results. It focuses on mobile games and further
applications with a playful character. Location, other context, and
mobility of users should be basic design aspects of the considered
applications.

Submissions might be written in German or English and should not
exceed six pages. Format must obey the LNI standard. Details about
LNI as well as templates for Word and LaTex are available on the
workshop’s website.

Since printing will be black and white authors should be careful when
using colored images or diagrams.

PUBLICATION

Accepted papers will be included in the Workshop Proceedings of
Informatik 2008. The proceedings will be published by the Gesellschaft für
Informatik (GI).

ORGANIZERS

The workshop is jointly organized by:
Pascal Bihler, Universität Bonn
Barbara Grüter, Hochschule Bremen
Irma Lindt, Fraunhofer FIT, St. Augustin
Holger Mügge, Universität Bonn

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

€ Linda Breitlauch, MediaDesign Hochschule Düsseldorf
€ Wolfgang Broll, Fraunhofer FIT, St. Augustin
€ Armin B. Cremers, Universität Bonn
€ Jürgen Fritz, Fachhochschule Köln
€ Julian Kücklich, University of Ulster
€ Peter Möckel, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, Berlin
€ Stefan Müller, Universität Koblenz
€ Albrecht Schmidt, Universität Duisburg-Essen
€ Clemens Türck, Ravensburger Spieleverlag, Ravensburg
€ Steffen P. Walz, ETH Zürich

CONTACT DETAILS

Workshop web page: http://sam.iai.uni-bonn.de/mobile-gaming
Please contact the organizer Pascal Bihler,
email: bihler@iai.uni-bonn.de

=====================================================================
11th MindTrek Conference
MindTrek 2008: Entertainment and Media in the Ubiquitous Era
Call for Position Papers, Workshops, Workshop Contributions
October 7th to 9th 2008 in Tampere, Finland http://www.mindtrek.org
www.mindtrek.org/cfp
=====================================================================

We are happy to invite you into MindTrek Conference in October 7–9, 2008. MindTrek is a three day conference to explore current and emerging topics of social media, ubimedia and games. MindTrek includes a workshop day, three main tracks, plenary sessions and invited presentations. MindTrek is a leading Northern new media festival and conference series, arranged already for more than a decade, since 1997. Interdisciplinary and open for innovation, MindTrek is a meeting place where experts and thinkers present results from their latest work regarding the development of Internet, interactive media and information society.

MindTrek brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines that are involved in the development of media – from sociology, economy, to technology. The organizing committee invites you to submit original high quality papers addressing the special theme and the topics, for presentation at the conference and inclusion in the proceedings.

The submitted papers will be selected for the following streams of the conference:

• Social media
• Gaming
• Ubiquitous and ambient media

Feel free to suggest workshops which are co-organized with the MindTrek 2008. Workshop proposals should include organizing committee, one page description of the theme of the workshop, short CV of organizers, duration, proceedings publisher, and schedule.

Important Dates:

31st May 2008: submission of position papers (abstract, 1000 words) and workshops
16th June 2008: review statements
29th August 2008: camera ready papers from authors (5 pages)
7th-9th October 2008: conference

Conference Themes:

1. Social Media

• business models, service models, and policies
• questions related to identity, motivation and values
• blogs, wikis, and collaboration designs in practice
• user-created content and social networks

2. Ubiquitous and ambient media

• ubiquitous and ambient services, devices, and environments
• business models, service models, and policies
• context aware, sensing, and interfaces for ubiquitous computation
• ergonomics, human-computer interaction designs, and product prototypes
• software, hardware and middleware frameworks
• digital television, digital film production, and new media systems
• pervasive and ubiquitous games
• ambient intelligence applications and services
• artistic works related to ubiquitous computation
• entertainment and experiences
• new human-computer interaction models

3. Games

• Theoretical and analytical contributions to the study of games and play
• Novel approaches to the design research of games
• Discussions of gaming technologies from user- or player-centred perspectives
• Studies of social play and role-play
• Analyses of online, mobile, casual and cross-media gaming
• Research into user-created game content
• Studies of pervasive games

Position paper submissions will be peer-reviewed as abstracts, and full versions of papers will be published both in conference proceedings and online by an international scholarly organization. Future edited versions of selected papers will be considered for special issues in journals, or as book chapters. Further possibilities for publication are currently under assessment.

Conference venue:

MindTrek takes place at Hotel Scandic Rosendahl, in Tampere, Finland. The organiser of the conference has booked quota for the conference delegates from this hotel. More information on accommodation and registration will be made available in our website. Please note that the accommodation is not included in the participation fee. There is also other accommodation available in Tampere, ranging from modern first class hotels to smaller traditional hotels and dormitories. If you select one of these options, you should make the reservations by yourself with that specific hotel. For more, see: http://www.mindtrek.org/matkustus/scandic-rosendahl_en

Conference Organizing Committee:

Artur Lugmayr (Scientific Chair)
Frans Mayra, Katri Lietsala, and Heljä Franssila (Conference Co-chairs)

Contact:

Artur Lugmayr, artur.lugmayr@tut.fi

For up to date information and further details please visit:

http://www.mindtrek.org

Send your contributions and any inquiry about the conference to:

http://www.mindtrek.org/cfp

Supported by: City of Tampere, Ubiqutious Computing Cluster, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere University, TAMK, PIRAMK, Technology Centre Hermia, Neogames, COSS, Gemilo, B105.

Host:

MindTrek Association (www.mindtrek.org)