[csaa-forum] CFP: 'Defining the Sensor Society' Conference, UQ, 8 - 9 May 2014

[Fergus Grealy]

Call For Papers: "Defining the Sensor Society"

A multi-disciplinary symposium at the University of Queensland, 8 – 9 May 2014
Key topic areas: Surveillance, Privacy, and Control in the Digital Era

RATIONALE
Sensors are proliferating across the networked digital landscape in the form of smart phones, smart cameras, interactive billboards, drones, and a growing array of fixed environmental sensors and interactive devices and platforms. The advent of digital interactivity means that devices which permeate our work, social, leisure, and domestic lives can all come to double as sensors. Our cars collect detailed information about our driving habits and destinations. Our smart phones gather a growing array of detailed and data about our communication activities and more. The growing network of sensors contributes to a fast-growing stream of data about everything from the weather to the details of our personal lives and our movements throughout the course of the day.
This changing environment of mass information sensors is dependent on sense-making infrastructures that include the networks whereby the data is transmitted and shared, the databases where data are stored and analysed, and the various platforms whereby this information is put to use. The shift away from targeted, discrete forms of information collection to always-on, ubiquitous, expanding and accelerating data collection results in significant changes in our understandings of surveillance, information processing, and privacy in the digital era.  In particular, sensor-based forms of information collection mark a shift in focus from isolated targets to environments, eco-systems (broadly construed), and populations. In the sensor society all data is relevant, all data potentially useful. The spiral of information collection is self-fuelling: too much data is no longer the problem; it’s now the solution. More data requires more sensors, more sensors require more infrastructure, and more infrastructure enables further data collection. The sensor society pushes necessarily in the direction of automated information processing, analysis, and response.  The sensors are generating more data than is comprehensible or usable by non-automated means: IBM estimates that sensors generate the equivalent of a quarter-million Libraries of Congress every day (and growing).  In the sensor society, much of the communication, interactivity, and feedback takes place between devices and platforms: the sensor becomes the avatar of the interactive interface.
The sensor society therefore raises significant questions about the role of privacy, power and surveillance in the world of the ever-watching, ever-sensing always-on interactive device. Control over the sensing infrastructure, the databases, and the response platforms will play a crucial role in how information is used and who benefits. This multi-disciplinary conference seeks to open up theoretical, empirical, and historical approaches to the sensor society.  We invite contributions that explore the sensor society from a variety of perspectives to illuminate our understandings of its social, political, cultural, and regulatory implications.
For more information as the conference program develops, see: http://cccs.uq.edu.au/sensor-society
POSSIBLE TOPICS
The conference organisers welcome submissions from a variety of different academic disciplines relating to privacy, surveillance, data analytics and the social implications of technology. The conference will therefore explore emerging and critical trends in privacy, including but not limited to the following:

  *   Critiquing and reforming information privacy law to address the threats and challenges that arise from the extended use of data sensors such as mobile phones or Google Glass
  *   The use of sensors for law enforcement and national security, including predictive policing, drones, automated license plate readers, etc.
  *   Examining the history and social consequences of data analytics
  *   The legal, social and technical implications of using sensor collected data for policy and research
  *   Defining and examining the development of ‘workplace’ or ‘people’ analytics and its potential effect on the rights of employees
  *   Using mobile sensors and data analytics for monitoring welfare recipients
  *   Critiquing the use of ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) to identify the privacy implications that arise
  *   Imaging the future use of sensors in social networks and other networked platforms
  *   Examining the use of sensors/data analytics in educational settings
  *   Examining the challenges for information storage and security that arise from mass sensor data collection
  *   Identifying the technologies and the technical, social and legal implications of mass sensor collection
  *   Examining the history of humans and devices as sensors and surveillance agents
  *   The use of sensors for consumer monitoring and targeting
  *   The development of biometric sensors for applications ranging from health care and self-monitoring to security, policing, and marketing
  *   Use of sensors for self-quantification, evaluation, and behaviour modification
  *   The relationship between surveillance, monitoring, and environmental sensing
  *   The ways in which sensors permeate and reconfigure space and spatial relations
  *   Identifying the social and legal threats related to the use of sensor collected data for law enforcement and national security purposes
  *   Examining the future of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as mass data collectors

POTENTIAL PANELS
The conference organisers would also be interested to receive submissions for participation in panel discussions relating to the following topics:

  *   Google Glass
  *   Apps and Smart Phones
  *   Drones
  *   Data mining and analytics

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS

The conference organisers anticipate publishing invited papers in an edited collection. Authors who would like their full conference paper to be considered for publication should indicate so to the conference organisers during submission. Papers for the conference should be submitted to admin.cccs at uq.edu.au<mailto:admin.cccs at uq.edu.au>.  Submission dates are as follows:
Abstract submission details:
Length: 500 words outlining topic area, argument, and significance. Abstracts should contribute in some way to a consideration of the sensor society and the issues it raises. We are also happy to consider full papers.
Deadline: January 15, 2014
Author notification: February 17, 2014
Final versions of invited papers for publication due: June 30, 2014. Papers should be 6,000-8,000 words in length, including notes and bibliography.
VENUE
The conference will be held at the University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, during Privacy Awareness Week, on 8 and 9 May. The University of Queensland is one of Australia’s premier research and higher learning institutions. It is ranked in the top 100 universities internationally and the St. Lucia Campus is located in a picturesque suburb of Brisbane, a short ferry ride away from downtown and the South Bank arts centres.
REGISTRATION
$100 / $50 for PhD students. Further details on the registration process will be available in early 2014.
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