Call for Interest: WebSci’24 and WebSci’25

Jan 5, 2023 | Conference, News, WebSci Conferences

Deadline: 3 February 2023

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The Steering Committee of ACM WebSci is seeking statements of interest from organizations or consortia interested in hosting the 16th or 17th ACM Web Science Conferences (WebSci 2024 and WebSci 2025). The conference series usually moves between the continents.  We will accept bids from all locations, but for the 2024 conference, we will give preference to bids within Europe and for the 2025 conference, we will give preference to bids outside Europe. We expect the conference to take place in June/July each year. Co-location with other ACM conferences will be considered and hosting the conference as a hybrid event is encouraged.  Please include a statement on how you would propose offering remote attendance.

The process consists of two stages. During this first stage, the Steering Committee solicits informal statements of interest through an open call. We will prefer statements that commit to running an event with low registration costs encouraging participants from all disciplines, including ones with lower financial provisions.

Organizations wishing to host the conference should contact Susan Davies (sdd1@soton.ac.uk) with a short paragraph outlining your interest, which should include the main organizer, the proposed venue and potential dates. Any organization can apply to host the conference, but the local organizing committee must include a representative of a local research group.

Once the first phase is complete, the Steering Committee will shortlist applications who will be invited to submit a full proposal.

The important dates for applying to host the Conferences are:

Friday 3 February:  Deadline for receiving statements of interest
Friday 17  February:  Notifications to shortlisted bids are sent out
Friday 31 March: Formal applications received from shortlisted bids

We will be in touch with successful applicants in mid-April.

It is anticipated that the venue for ACM WebSci 2024 will be announced at this year’s conference in Austin, Texas. 

Book Release: Digital Modernity

Jan 5, 2023 | News, Publications

In this monograph, O’Hara reviews the literature that characterises what is called digital modernity. Digital modernity narratives focus on the possibilities of the data gathered by an ambient data infrastructure, enabled by ubiquitous devices such as the smartphone, and activities such as social networking and e-commerce. It is characterised by (1) a subjunctive outlook where people’s choices can be anticipated and improved upon, (2) the valorisation of disruptive innovation on demand, and (3) control provided by data analysis within a virtual realm that can be extended and applied to the physical world. O’Hara explores the synergies and tensions between these three aspects as well as the opportunities for and dilemmas posed by misinformation. He identifies five principles that emerge from the study of relevant texts and business models and concludes by contrasting digital modernity with other theories of the 21st century information society. Narratives of digital modernity are useful because they help explain the development of technology. It matters because many influential people accept, and often generate, the digital modernity narrative. Given digital modernity’s strong association with the Web, it is a central topic for Web Science as the interdisciplinary study of the World Wide Web from the technological, social, and individual points of view.

Kieron O’Hara is Emeritus Fellow in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.

This publication can be found here: dx.doi.org/10.1561/1800000031. It is also available on IEEE Xplore at https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9955458. You can contact the publisher for access options or order a print copy at the $40 discount rate using the code: 226485

Digital Modernity by Kieron O’Hara
Published: 17 November 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63828-104-7
URL: dx.doi.org/10.1561/1800000031