[AISWorld] CFP: AMCIS 2012 Mini-Track: Social Aspects of Social Networking

[Laurence Brooks]

CALL FOR PAPERS

18th Americas Conference on Information Systems

Seattle, Washington, August 9-12, 2012

TRACK: Social Issues and Social Inclusion Track

MINI-TRACK: Social Aspects of Social Networking

Description:

Social Networking, as exemplified in the 'Web 2.0 concept' by online applications such as MySpace, Facebook,
Flickr, LinkedIn, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Gather, 43 Things, etc., have been making headlines in the national
newspapers (Lanchester, 2006), not only for their high profile acquisition by major media companies, but also
for their ability to potentially create a whole new revenue stream, create a new exploitation route or even
influence the outcome of the US presidential nomination race (Stelter, 2008). However, the interesting
question is whether these are the future of the Internet (as the Web 2.0 badge implies), or merely the latest
'dot.com' bomb (as has also been implied in some parts of the media, eg. Wood, 2005). What is it about these
systems that appear to have caught the current zeitgeist? Are they just another of the fleeting fancies that
the media have hyped, or are there more substantial factors supporting the creation of these networks?
Equally can the huge networks (such as MySpace and Facebook) really be sustained in the longer term, and how
might they be appropriated by industry, for example the possible rise of Enterprise 2.0 and its implications
for future forms of social networks.

At the desktop end of the spectrum, Windows Vista(c) business edition has Windows Meeting Space, a social
collaboration technology for small groups of users built-in, while Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 has
'Groove', a collaboration software program in it, and now there are 'cloud' computing offerings, such as
Google Docs and Windows Live. Will these elements become ubiquitous and facilitate, constrain or alter the
development and sustenance of business social networks. How are organisations coping with the tensions of
collaboration versus gossip; privacy versus publication? How will these considerations affect the future form
and direction of Internet research and development? How does our understanding of the past help us to
understand what might happen in the future?

While the technology is important, as without this the whole phenomena would not exist, the interesting and
challenging element of social networking is what people do with it, ie. the social aspect. This track aims to
bring together related articles (theoretical and empirical papers, including survey and case/field study
research papers) that address the concept of social networking and related phenomena.

Suggested topics:

* Analysis of social networking patterns and trends
* Business value and the strategic impact of social networks
* Frameworks and models of best practice for developing/sustaining/integrating social networking systems
* Enterprise 2.0 business models and case studies
* Issues of privacy and trust; information credibility
* Management of the 'chatter' of multiple social networking channels (ie. the new 'information overload')
* Mobile social networking
* New and alternative approaches to social networking systems
* Positivist, interpretivist and critical approaches to social networking
* User adoption and diffusion of social networks

Mini-track chairs:

Laurence Brooks
Email: Laurence.Brooks at brunel.ac.uk
School of Information Systems Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, UK
Phone: +44 (0) 1895 266010

Roman Brandtweiner
Email: Roman.Brandtweiner at wu.ac.at
Institute of Information Management & Control, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Phone: +43 (0) 1 313364774

Howard Rosenbaum
Email: hrosenba at indiana.edu
School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, 1320 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN  47405-1801, USA

Submission Procedure:

Submit your manuscript using the manuscript central system at - http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amcis2012

Important Dates

*    January 2, 2012: Manuscript Central will start accepting paper submissions

*    March 1, 2012: (11:59 PM Pacific time zone): Deadline for paper submissions

*    April 2, 20012: Authors will be notified of acceptances on or about this date

*    April 20, 2012: (11:59 PM Pacific time zone): For accepted papers, camera ready copy due

_______________________________________________________
Laurence Brooks

Past President, UK Academy for Information Systems (UKAIS) President, UK Systems Society (UKSS)

Course Director, MSc Information Systems Management (ISM)
(http://www.brunel.ac.uk/siscm/disc/postgraduates/masters/information-systems-management)
Lecturer, Department of Information Systems and Computing School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics Brunel University Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK.

Tel: +44 (0)1895 266010 (direct)
Fax: +44 (0)1895 251686
Mobile: +44 (0)7866 726928
Email: laurence.brooks at brunel.ac.uk<mailto:laurence.brooks at brunel.ac.uk>
Skype: laurencebrooks
Web: http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~csstllb/
UKAIS: http://www.ukais.org
UKSS: http://www.ukss.org.uk
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