EPIC 2011 - EPIC 2011 : 7th Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference

When: September 18-21, 2011

Where: Boulder, Colorado at the St. Julien Hotel

Papers: Abstract submission deadline March 13, 2011

Workshops: Proposal submission deadline April 3, 2011

Artifacts: Proposal submission deadline April 17, 2011

Pecha Kucha: Proposal submission deadline May 1, 2011

The Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference is pleased to announce that our 2011 Annual Conference will be held in Boulder, Colorado, from September 18 to 21, 2011. The Boulder venue will combine the advantages of an intimate, college-town scale with the entrepreneurial and high-technology focus of one of the “Best Places to Start a Company” in the United States. Boulder is easy to get to and combines a gorgeous natural setting with world-class scientific institutions (University of Colorado, The National Renewable Energy Lab, National Standards and Technology Institute, National Center for Atmospheric Research, to name a few).

Last year’s conference in Tokyo was an enormously successful, jam-packed event for the EPIC community. EPIC has become the premier international forum for bringing together academics, computer scientists, designers, policy makers, social scientists, marketers and other professionals interested in the ongoing development of the field of applied ethnographic research and practice.

Evolution/Revolution

For the 2011 Meeting, we are seeking original, high quality and engaging papers, workshops, artifacts and presentations around the theme of “Evolution/Revolution: change and ethnographic work.” We are focused this year on the harmonies and disjunctions between the continuous evolution of practice and the pressures of radical disruptions that come from technology, history, economics, and other areas where change is the rule. We invite theoretical discussions, technical and methodological advances, case studies, standards and practice discussions, and new applications of ethnography that substantially address this year’s conference theme.

The contrast between the slow processes of evolution and the sharp, intentionally discontinuous change of revolution offers us an interesting way to approach the substantive concerns of the practice of ethnography and the applications of ethnography worldwide. From social media to social innovation, from product development to change management, from exploratory research to policy implementation, ethnographic praxis is adapting to a new environment, competing for resources, spinning off variations of and transmitting its skills to other fields. We are constantly engaged in a process of imagining change as well as effecting it. We’d like this year’s material and discussions to focus on the implications of those processes and practices.

While the final organization of conference will be dependent on the range and quality of papers selected, we think that the language of evolutionary change (including its more disruptive, intentional forms) will be a primary organizing metaphor. We particularly solicit papers, panels, and other activities that successfully incorporate the theme, such as:

- Mechanisms of transmission: How knowledge, representations, practices, skills move from discipline to discipline, field to field, organization to organization, over various timescales.

- Variation: work on ranges of substance, technologies, frames, and methodology; on sources of difference; and on the factors which ‘select’ for success out of those variations.

- Selection mechanisms: The dynamics which contribute to differential success, the kinds of ‘pressures’ that affect work. ‘Fitness’, ecologies, resource models, finding niches, and competition. In other words, what makes good work ‘good’?

- Outcomes: The ways that selection, competition affect the long term fitness of ethnographic practices. How what we do and the way we do it affects the use and value of our work, and how that might be changing: co-evolution, speciation, collapse, expansion, extinction.

Below are details and deadlines for submissions for the Papers, Workshops, Artifacts and Pecha Kucha sessions. The competition of presentation slots at the 2010 meeting was the heaviest we have yet had, and we anticipate a full-capacity event as the conference returns to North America this year.

EPIC2011 Co-chairs:

Donna Flynn, Microsoft

Rick E. Robinson, product/agency

Luis Arnal, in/situm

For up to date information and further details please visit:
http://www.epiconference.com/epic2011

Send any inquiry about the conference to:info-AT-epic2011.com

To receive updates about EPIC2011 Conference, follow us on twitter (epiconference) or join the Linkedin group (EPIC)

Papers:

Abstract Submission Deadline March 13, 2011

The Paper Sessions are the cornerstone of EPIC’s project to build substantial foundations for our growing and developing discipline. Accepted peer-reviewed papers are published in the conference proceedings, and should present new perspectives, new developments, and new work within our practice whilst at the same time showing the links between these new perspectives and existing or emerging literatures and debates. We place a strong emphasis on presentation of the papers at the conference, aiming for the key ideas in the papers to be communicated in the most compelling and effective ways possible.

EPIC2011 seeks original, high-quality papers that reflect the full breadth and scope of ethnographic praxis in industry, including: conceptual development, research investigations, methodological & theoretical advances, design ideas, development experiences, discussion of what client constituencies do with findings, what constitutes successful results, considerations of representational practices and more. Submissions should report original research, reflections on theoretical concerns, methodological advances, or other insights that contribute to our understanding of ethnographic praxis in industry and help advance the state of knowledge for the community. We encourage perspectives from diverse disciplinary backgrounds.

Paper abstracts should be submitted in .doc or .txt or .rtf format. Paper submissions must include:

Title
Author(s)’s email address, affiliation and other contact information
Proposed length of paper, if accepted (5 ? 15 pages)
Extended Abstract (< 750 words)
Outline of full paper
References to relevant literature or other types of previous work, if appropriate to your submission.
The abstracts will be evaluated on the following criteria:

addressing the theme of EVOLUTION / REVOLUTION
implications for practice and theory of ethnography in industry
significance to the community;
advancements of methods, theories, applications and representations;
originality, insight and creativity of the contribution.
Effective submissions will demonstrate clearly how they address the above criteria.

Contributions submitted should not have been previously published or be under simultaneous review for any other conference, journal, workshop or other publication. Accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings published by Wiley-Blackwell in conjunction with the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA). Authors are required to attend the conference to present their work.

Please send extended abstracts by March 13th, 2011 to: papers-AT-epic2011.com
In the email subject please write “EPIC2011 Papers.”

Notification of acceptance notification will be by May 1st, 2011.

The Review Process

Abstract submissions will be put through a triple blind review process; reviewers will not know who the authors are.

Authors are encouraged to take care throughout the entire document to minimize references that may reveal their identities and their companies or institutions. Relevant references to an author's previous research, or their corporation’s products or services should not be suppressed but instead referenced in a neutral way.

Authors of abstracts selected for the conference, will be expected to submit full papers for publication in the proceedings. Papers of differing length will be accepted into the conference.

Important Dates:

March 13, 2011

Deadline for Paper Submissions

May 1, 2011

Author(s) will be notified of provisional acceptance of the paper based on the abstract.

May 29, 2011

A first draft of the full papers sent to conference committee for complete review. Paper will need to meet publication style guidelines

June 19, 2011

Reviewer's comments will be sent to the author(s)

July 24, 2011

Revised papers addressing the program committees comments re-submitted

August 8, 2011

Final Acceptance/Rejection Notices sent to authors.

August 21, 2011

Final copy for conference to publications chair

September 18-21

Paper presentations at EPIC2011, Boulder, USA

Workshops:

Proposals Submission Deadline April 3, 2011

Workshops will take place during the conference and will form part of the main program. This year we are only accepting proposals for half-day (3 hour) workshops.

Workshops are intended to provide a forum for exchanging ideas, sharing experiences, fostering conversation and research communities, learning from each other, exploring controversies, engaging in debate, envisioning future directions and elaborating new methods and perspectives.

Workshop activities can range from open forum discussion, to demonstrations or presentations with discussion, to collaborative activities such as structured brainstorming, illustrative games or role-plays. Whatever the focus or format, organizers will be required to schedule time for conversation, reflection, discussion, and debate. Although we envision most workshop activities to take place in one setting, let us know if your workshop will venture out into other sites in Boulder.

Workshop proposals should include:

a summary of 500 words describing the theme(s) of the workshop
a longer detailed description of the workshop structure, activities and goals
the names, contact information and background of the organizer(s)
the maximum number of participants you'd like to attend the workshop
anticipated A/V requirements.
Please be as specific as possible as it helps us in selection, and in helping you plan the workshop.

Workshop participants will be registered on a first come first served basis by the conference committee, so the workshop organizers will not be able to select their participants.

Accepted workshops will be publicized via the EPIC2011 website within a month after organizers are notified. Workshop organizers will also be encouraged to promote EPIC2011 and their workshops to potential attendees. Abstracts of accepted Workshop proposals will be published in the EPIC 2011 Proceedings.

Please send proposals by April 3, 2011 to: workshops-AT-epic2011.com
In the email subject please write “EPIC2011 Workshop Proposal”. Additionally, please include the email address of the main contact for the workshop, and any other contact details that will help us get in touch with you. Notification of acceptance notification will be by May 8, 2011.

Artifacts:

Proposals Submission Deadline April 17, 2011

The artifacts category seeks to provide participants with an opportunity to present work in a forum that facilitates open discussion and enables direct interaction with conference attendees. A dedicated session will be held during the conference to present the artifacts.

Artifacts can be anything from design sketchbooks, to reformed organizational processes, to ads you’ve produced, to products you’ve made, to short films, to conceptual objects, etc. We encourage submissions that are thought provoking and visually engaging, and which cover exploratory/speculative work, smaller projects, unusual representations of ethnographic work, and so on. The form of the presented materials is open. In keeping with the category title artifacts though, we encourage submissions based on some material instantiation that can be exhibited at the conference. Our hope is that it will be the ‘thinginess’ of the artifacts that will, in part, prompt interaction with and between conference attendees.

Submissions should include a single page describing or illustrating the proposed submission (the one page inclusive of any and all figures and references, where appropriate). This page should convey to reviewers what the artifact being submitted is and how it is hoped to provoke discussion. The page will also be included in the published conference proceedings.

Also included in the submissions should be a paragraph and image (no more that 150 words) that can be displayed on the conference website.

Please send these submission materials by April 17, 2011 to:

artifacts-AT-epic2011.com In the email “Subject” please write “EPIC2011 Artifacts”. Additionally, please include your email address and other contact details.

Notification of acceptance will happen by May 22, 2011. Accepted submissions will have their 150 word descriptions posted on the EPIC2011 website.

Descriptions (including images) of accepted artifacts will be published in the EPIC 2011 Proceedings.

The artifact itself should be transported to Boulder for the conference

Pecha Kucha presentations

Proposals Submission Deadline May 1, 2011

Now in our second year for this category, EPIC solicits Pecha Kucha (pronounced: "peh-cha-ku-cha'') presentations. An informal, engaging and highly visual presentation of 20 slides, each one exactly 20 seconds, for a total presentation time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds. Pecha Kucha presentations at EPIC are intended to communicate quickly and efficiently various ideas related to Ethnography EVOLUTION / REVOLUTION. We encourage submissions that are visually engaging, loaded with thought provoking content and provide a strong point of view on a specific topic related to the conference theme.

Submissions should include a single page describing the proposed Pecha Kucha concept; a brief 150-word description of the concept; and at least five slides which you intend to use as visuals in the presentation. This information should convey to reviewers what is the main point to be communicated and how it will be communicated.

Please send these submission materials by May 1, 2011 to:

pechakucha-AT-epic2011.com In the email “Subject” please write “EPIC2011 Pecha Kucha”. Additionally, please include your email address and other contact details.

Notification of acceptance will be sent by June 5, 2011. Accepted submissions will have their 150 word descriptions posted on the EPIC2011 website.

In case of acceptance, you will be required to present live to all EPIC2011 attendees.