CALL FOR PAPERS THIRD INTERNATIONAL COGNITIVE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, CT'99 NETWORKED MINDS Aug. 11-14, 1999 San Francisco/Silicon Valley, USA Conference site: http://mindlab.msu.edu/CT99/ Host: Media Interface & Network Design Lab, Michigan State University http://www.mindlab.msu.edu Supported by: Cognitive Technology Society The Practical Memory Institute Interactive Systems Engineering, University of Hertfordshire Warwick University, England, host of CT'2001 University of Aizu, host of CT'97 City University of Hong Kong, host of CT'95 DEADLINES Abstracts: 15 February 1999 Acceptance: 25 March 1999 Full paper: 1 June 1999 INVITED SPEAKERS * David Good, Cambridge University, UK: "From Interaction to Integration in Networded Minds: The Development of and Prospects for Cognitive Technology" * Jean Paul Jacob, IBM, USA & Brasil: "Informatics: the future is not what it used to be!" * Ted Nelson, Project Xanadu, Keio University: TBA * Gavriel Salomon, Haifa University, Israel : "Is there light at the end of the website?" * Juergen Streeck, The University of Texas, USA: "Non-Canonical Cognitive Technologies" COGNITIVE TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVE Cognitive Technology (CT) is the study of the integration between the human mind, the human body, and the material world. Its main concern is how human cognition develops along with the tools that people create to enhance it. In particular, the emphasis is on why, how and to what extent technologically constructed tools/aids: · bear on dynamic changes in human perception, · affect natural human communication, and · are used to promote or control human adaptation. At the heart of these investigations is the need to understand how the use of tools impacts on the processes by which an individual forms an integrated ecological continuum between the brain, body and environment, rather than how such use allows the individual to function more effectively within a group of interacting, but separate, individual agents. The key design issue in CT is: How can we define, predict, and recognize the threshold at which technological enhancement of human ability and/or performance becomes a constraint on that very ability and/or performance? More detailed information about CT and its research perspective can be obtained from http://www.edutools.cityu.edu.hk/ctsoc/ STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The upcoming Third International Conference (San Francisco, 1999) will take cognitive technology into the heart of Silicon Valley, and ask how emerging telecommunication and collaborative technologies affect human cognition from the point of view of gathering rather than dispersing the different approaches. On the eve of a century in which telecommunication systems will increasingly connect embodied minds in a technologically woven web of representations, we inquire about the optimal role of technology in human communication, collaborative computing, and distributed cognition. The concept of *networked minds* neatly subsumes all these questions. CONFERENCE THEME: NETWORKED MINDS Human minds are becoming increasingly networked. We are steadily approaching the Optimal Flow Point, a theoretical point in telecommunication when the technology allows any mind on the planet to reach any other mind in a minimal amount of time. Developments in satellite and cellular technologies are moving us to the point of spatial ubiquity, when any spot, no matter how remote or primitive, can be connected with any other in a worldwide telecommunication system. As spatial ubiquity is approaching, time needed to contact any human being is being steadily reduced. As ubiquitous networking develops, computer interfaces such as expensive virtual reality systems allow higher levels of user embodiment. The sensors and effectors of the interface increasingly penetrate the sensorimotor system of the user. Interfaces with high levels of user embodiment potentially allow the flow of communication between any two connected minds to meet and, possibly, surpass face-to-face communication. The networking of minds proceeds apace. CONFERENCE SUB-THEMES Papers may be submitted for inclusion in any of the following thematic subgroups; the list is not exhaustive. Submissions should focus on addressing issues from a Cognitive Technology perspective. Distributed Cognition in Networked Environments The networking of minds allows for new and unusual distributions of cognition in the form of networked, reconfigurable work teams and social groupings. The implications for individual and organizational communication are profound. Attendees are encouraged to consider a number of theoretical CT issues: · Telecommunication technology: Factors facilitating or hindering distributed cognition · Changes in distributed cognition resulting from increased networking. · Organizations and networks as cognitive technologies. · Interaction of culture and interfaces in ubiquitous telecommunication. · Cognitive division of labor and coordination of human cognition in networked environments. · Meme propagation in telecommunication networks. · Human identity and individual cognition in telecommunication systems. · Virtual universities and distributed educational systems. · Wearable computing. Interface Development, Cognitive Tools, and Collaborative Systems: Networked minds connected to virtual humans, agents, and avatars. Human cognition is embodied and situated in culturally constructed physical and social settings. Interfaces supporting collaborative telecommunication technologies bring together human minds to teleconference and telerelate, engage in creative labor, coordinate social action, play and meet, and control technologies for human commerce. Increasingly this collaboration is mediated by various technologies that embody the human mind in action: avatars, agents, artificial life, virtual spaces, etc. Human cognition is often mediated by humanoid representations of the technological apparatus in the form of agents and other similar technologies. Participants are encouraged to consider the design and implications of these developments from a cognitive technology perspective: · Telecommunication systems and human coordination in work and social action. · Avatar design, human empowerment, and interpersonal communication. · Interfaces that enhance physical or cognitive disabilities. · New interface metaphors for computer-mediated communication. · Agent technology in interface design. · Role of language and culture in international collaborative systems. · Interface development and the pragmatics of human exchange in collaborative systems. · Communication and shared cognition between humans and AI-driven agents. Distributing and augmenting human cognition: Telepresence, remote sensing, smart rooms, and telecommunication A primary function of all media, but especially of telecommunication technologies, is to collapse space or to make space more intelligent. Advances in telecommunication, remote sensing, and telerobotics offer numerous possibilities for measuring, observing, and experiencing remote locations. The space around users becomes an integral part of cognitive technology. Participants are encouraged to consider the design and implications of these developments from a Cognitive Technology perspective. For example: · Telepresence technologies, cognitive tools in telemedicine, engineering, and the sciences. · Cognitive tools for augmenting and enhancing human performance in networked environments. · Augmented reality, smart rooms and the merger of physical space and cyberspace. · Human adaptation to virtual environments, information spaces, and knowledge systems. · Database representations and knowledge systems. Implications of Communication Networks for Human Cognition and Cultural Systems Cognitive technology is interested not just in design, but in a design inspired by cognitive ecology: the impact of communication technology on the cultural systems that support human cognition. Developments in communication networks raise important ecological, sociopolitical, psychological, and epistemological issues. Participants are encouraged to consider the impact of cognitive tools on cultural ecology. For example: · Philosophy of human-technology interaction. · Human adaptation within telecommunication systems. · Human behavior in networked social environments. · The design of national information structures. · Minds seeking access to telecommunication networks: social rights and economic barriers to networked cognition. · Anthropomorphizing computers emulating social cognition. · Networks and diluted data processing. · Social cognition in virtual environments. · Virtual humans in human-virtual human interaction. · Virus memes. Conference Committee Conference Chair Frank Biocca M.I.N.D. Lab, Michigan State University International Program Committee Chairs Barbara Gorayska City University of Hong Kong Jacob Mey Odense University, Denmark Members Meurig Beynon Warwick University, UK Ho Mun Chan City University of Hong Kong Andy Clark Washington University, USA Orville Clubb City University of Hong Kong Chris Colbourn Southampton Institute, UK Kevin Cox City University of Hong Kong Kerstin Dautenhahn University of Reading, UK Will Fitzgerald Intell/Agent Systems, USA Laurence Goldstein Hong Kong University David Good Cambridge University, UK Hartmut Haberland Roskilde University, Denmark Rudolf Hanka Cambridge University, UK Stevan Harnad University of Southampton, UK Sandra Helsel University of Arizona, USA Douglas Herrmann Indiana State University, USA Horace Ip City University of Hong Kong Richard Janney University of Munich, Germany Benny Karpatschof Copenhagen University, Denmark Alex Kass Northwestern University, USA Tosiyasu L. Kunii Hosei University, Japan Kari Kuutti University of Oulu, Finland Myron W. Krueger Artificial Reality Corporation, USA Roger Lindsay Oxford-Brookes University, UK Jonathon Marsh Hong Kong University Yoshiharu Masuda Nagoya Gakuin University, Japan Naomi Miyake Toyota University, Japan Cliff Nass Stanford University, USA Chrystopher Nehaniv University of Hertfordshire, UK Rolf Pfeifer University Zurich-Irchel, Switzerland Herbert Pick University of Minnesota, USA Colin T. Schmidt Sorbonne University, France John A. A. Sillince University of London, UK Hiroshi Tamura Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan Jacques J. Vidal Brain Research Institute, UCLA, USA Albert Yonas University of Minnesota, USA CALL FOR PAPERS If you are interested in the issues mentioned above (or other, similar ones) and wish to share your thoughts and hopes with like-minded people, please submit an extended abstract (approximately 1500 words) via email with attached files (in ASCII, rtf, or Word) to: Kevin Cox at kcox@spirit.com.au All abstracts will be refereed by an independent panel of experts. The opinions of the referees will determine the list of papers to be presented at the conference. Further information about the conference and its organization and publication procedures can be obtained from the CT'99 website: http://www.mindlab.msu.edu/CT99/index.html