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IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
WEB BASED COMMUNITIES 2006
February 26-28, 2006 -
San Sebastian, Spain

(http://www.iadis.org/WBC2006)

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* Conference background and goals

The mission of this conference is to publish and integrate
scientific results and act catalytically to the fast developing
culture of web communities. The conference invites original papers,
review papers, technical reports and case studies on WWW in
particular the emerging role of so-called WWW-based Communities.

Domain: It is increasingly important for our culture to bring people
together and to promote dynamics in professional organizations,
mutual understanding, learning and harmony. Creating "virtual
communities" is one major way to do this. The Web Based Communities
2006 conference aims at sharing and aggregating scientifically
proven methods on how to organize and moderate WWW-based
communities. These communities do not limit participants to
particular locations - the international and multicultural dimension
is a most challenging one. Good WWW communities undergo a continuous
evolution and adapt to the changing world. The nature of these
communities can be corporate, scientific, social or educational.
Pragmatic questions which need to be addressed include: What
software tools are the most adequate and how to use them? How to
promote your community so that new members can find it? How to
protect the members' privacy? How to moderate discussions and how to
provide information that people can use? How to create and maintain
a sense of trust and commitment among the members? In addition,
sociology, education, communication and philosophy issues are
addressed as the main disciplines reflected in building WWW-based
communities, although critical theories on societies and post-
modernism are also relevant starting points. New and imminent
technologies will be discussed.

Objectives: The Web Based Communities 2006 Conference aims at
bringing together new vital understanding of WWW communities and
what new initiatives mean. Each new perspective is potentially a
catalyst for finding new architectures. National and regional-
oriented communities may soon be relegated to a subordinate position
compared to interest-oriented communities. Multiculturalism,
critical thinking, expressing aesthetic aspects of our identity, and
finding sparring partners for sharpening our ideologies, are all
processes that need the new communication infrastructures.

The targeted audience is scientists and members and moderators of
WWW communities who feel responsible for optimizing its quality and
effect.

* Format of the Conference
The conference will comprise invited talks and oral presentations.
The proceedings of the conference will be published in the form of a
book. The better papers will be candidate for the "International
Journal of Web Based Communities" (IJWBC); ISSN: 1477 - 8394 [4
issues per year]

* Types of submissions
Full and Short Papers, Posters/Demonstrations, Tutorials, Panels and
Doctoral Consortium. All submissions are subject to a blind
refereeing process.

* Subject indications (but not limited to)
The history, architecture and future of virtual communities
1. From mobility to connectivity
2. Identity and augmented ideologies
3. Visionary web architectures, implanted computers
4. Network revolutions, post-colonial and post-modern societies
5. Escaping from reality, virtual reality and multi-user games
6. Towards alternative ways of presence

Group processes and self-organization
1. Tele-democracy, morality, netiquette
2. Social networks, tribal- and open communities, peace education
3. Computer mediated-, hyper- and narrative communication, woven
stories
4. MUDs, MOOs and avatars
5. Hosting web-based communities
6. Nationalities, ethnicities and gender effects

Cyborgs, teleworking, telemedicine, art games and learning
communities
1. Fading hierarchies and epistemic dictatorship
2. Distributed cognition, the electronic cortex and constructivism
3. Community directories
4. Mechanic world, organic computer
5. Agents and the vectorized self
6. Beyond metaphors: imagining and representation
7. Communizing as a marketing approach

Expanding markets through virtual communities
1. The WWW as digital market place
2. The enterprise as a learning community
3. The learning as a road map for business
4. Universities as online communities
5. Business-to-business communication in profit- and non profit
sectors

Virtual communities for people with special needs
1. Access to public spaces
2. Accessibility and long-term disabilities
3. Virtual communities in health care

* Important Dates:
- Submission Deadline extended: 11 November 2005
- Notification to Authors: 5 December 2005
- Final Camera-Ready Submission and Early Registration: Until 17
December 2005
- Late Registration: After 17 December 2005
- Conference: San Sebastian, Spain, 26 to 28 February 2006

* Conference Location The conference will be held in San Sebastian,
Spain.

* Secretariat
IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE WEB BASED COMMUNITIES 2006
Rua Sao Sebastiao da Pedreira, 100, 3, 1050-209 Lisbon, Portugal
E-mail: wbc-sec@... Web site: http://www.iadis.org/wbc2006

* Program Committee
Conference Co-Chairs
Piet Kommers, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Pedro Isaías, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University),
Portugal

Program Chair
Ambrosio Goikoetxea, University of Mondragon, Spain

Committee Members:
Adam Joinson, The Open University, United Kingdom
Alessandra Agostini, University of Milano, Italy
Alexandra Kopitar, EEE, Austria
Andreas Becks, Fraunhofer FIT, Aachen, Germany
Andrew Ravenscroft, London Metropolitan University United Kingdom
Anne Jelfs, The Open University, United Kingdom
Begoña Gros, University of Barcelona, Spain
Bob Kemp, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Bryn Holmes, Concordia University, Canada
Carlos Delgado Kloos, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
Carmel McNaught, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Changjie Tang, Sichuan University, China
Chien-Sing Lee, Multimedia University, Malaysia
Chris Pegler, The Open University, United Kingdom
Christine Smith, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Christopher Irgens, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
Christos Bouras, University of Patras, Greece
Colin Tattersall, Open University of the Netherlands, The Netherlands
Daniel Burgos, Open University of The Netherlands, The Netherlands
Demetrios G. Sampson, ITI-CERTH, Greece
Deniz Deryakulu, Ankara University, Turkey
Dmitry Bystrov, Tashkent State Technical University, Uzbekistan
Dragan Djuric, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
Dragan Gasevic, Simon Fraser University Surrey, Canada
Eliza Stefanova, Sofia University "St. Kl. Ohridski", Bulgaria
Emanuel Gruengard, Shenkar School of Engineering and Design, Israel
Erik Andriessen, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Eshaa M. Alkhalifa, University of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain
Fong-Lok Lee, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Frank Stowell, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Frieda Saeys, Gent University, Belgium
Gail Miles, Lenoir-Rhyne College, USA
Georgios Dafoulas, Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Griff Richards, Simon Fraser University Surrey, Canada
Hans Hummel, Open University of The Netherlands, The Netherlands
Hans-Inge Persson, Swedish Agency for Flexible Learning, Sweden
Iliana Nikolova, University of Sofia, Bulgaria
Ilias Karasavvidis, University of Thessaly, Greece
J. Michael Spector, Florida State University, USA
Jan Frick, Stavanger University, Norway
Jiannong Cao, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
John Murnane, The University of Melbourne, Australia
John P. Cuthell, Virtual Learning, United Kingdom
Karen Lazenby, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Kathleen Kelm, Edgewood College, USA
Kia Ng, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Kinshuk, Massey University, New Zealand
Kirsti Lindh, Univeristy of Tampere, Finland
Konrad Morgan, University of Bergen, Norway
Lawrie Hunter, Kochi University of Technology, Japan
Leandro Madrazo, Escola Tècnica i Superior d'Arquitectura La Salle,
Spain
Lee Chien-Ching, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Linda Price, The Open University, United Kingdom
Liviu Cristian Miclea, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Ljuan Marko Gashi, University of Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro
Lorna Uden, Staffordshire University, United Kingdom
Lyn Henderson, James Cook University, Australia
Maomi Ueno, Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan
Maria Zenios, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Michael Henderson, James Cook University, Australia
Nopphol Pauswasdi, Mahidol University, Thailand
Paul Leng, The University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
R. Karpaga Kumaravel, Bharathidasan University, India
Radojica Petrovic, Technical Faculty of Cacak, Serbia and Montenegro
Rainer Malaka, EML, Germany
Ralf Klamma, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Roger Hartley, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Sandra Cairncross, Napier University, United Kingdom
Slavi Stoyanov, Open University Netherlands, The Netherlands
Spiros Sirmakessis, Technological Educational Institution of
Messolongi, Greece
Tarja Tikkanen, RF Rogaland Research, Norway
Theo Bastiaens, Open University of the Netherlands, The Netherlands
Thomas Köhler, Universität Potsdam, Germany
Thrasyvoulos Tsiatsos, University of Patras, Greece
Tsuneo Yamada, National Institute of Multimedia Education, Japan
Valery A. Petrushin, Accenture Technology Labs, USA
Vanessa Dennen, Florida State University, USA
Vasile Palade, Oxford University, United Kingdom
Vicente Luque Centeno, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
Violeta Damjanovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
Volker Wulf, University of Siegen, Germany
Vyaceslav Shitikov, Riga Technical University, Latvia
Witold Abramowicz, Poznan University of Economics, Poland
Yuko Terao, Hyogo University of Teacher Education, Japan

for the full Committee Members list please access
http://www.iadis.org/wbc2006/committees.asp

* Co-located event
Please also check the co-located event Applied Computing 2006
(http://www.iadis.org/ac2006/) - 25-28 February 2006

* Registered participants in the Web Based Communities conference
may attend the Applied Computing conference sessions free of charge.