Anita,
Hi!
It was great to meet you at the Maryland HCI symposium. I think we gave
two very exciting, 1 minute, right before lunch presentations! :-)
Below is a submission for consideration in the ASIST SIG USE Annual
Research Symposium from Dr. Lynette Kvasny and me.
Best,
Jim
------------------Special Population: Econsumers
Jim Jansen
School of Information Sciences and Technology
The Pennsylvania State University
329F Information Sciences and Technology Building
University Park, PA, 16802, USA
Email: jjansen@acm.org
URL: http://ist.psu.edu/faculty_pages/jjansen/
Blog: http://jimjansen.blogspot.com/
Phone: 814-865-6459 Fax: 814-865-6426
Lynette Kvasny
School of Information Sciences and Technology
The Pennsylvania State University
329C Information Sciences and Technology Building
University Park, PA, 16802, USA
Email: lkvasny@ist.psu.edu
URL: http://ist.psu.edu/faculty_pages/lkvasny
Phone: (814) 865-6458
Fax: 814-865-6426
We propose the special population of econsumers. The Web as an
information resource has and is affecting how many people address the
issues of their daily life. Certainly, how people conduct commercial
transactions is undergoing significant change. Yet, many fields within
the academic community have not addressed the special needs of these
econsumers. This is certainly true of the information behavior (IB)
field. Econsumers have specific information seeking goals and even more
specific (i.e., transactional) information searching objectives.
Jim Jansen has conducted research on how people use the Web and
especially Web search engines to address the multiple facets of their
lives. More recently, his research focus has shifted to more directly
investigating how people use the Web for ecommerce and to providing
improved systems to supported these tasks.
Lynette Kvasny has conducted research on the digital divide, with a
special emphasis on women in the African Diaspora. Her work examines how
racial and ethnic minorities conceptualize and use the Internet, as well
as barriers (i.e. lack of culturally salient content, skills, access)
that limit their effective use of the Internet.
Prior work in the econsumer / ecommerce searching area has shown, among
other findings, that:
(1)
There may be gender, ethnic, age, and income factors that affect
the conduct and effectiveness of econsumers.
(2)
Econsumers are distrusting of search engines, believing that
advertising affects how search engines rank documents.
(3) There exists a lack of culturally salient content for nontraditional users i.e., a content divide).
(4) Paradoxically, ecommerce is one of, if not the, fastest growing area
of Web search.
Given these factors and findings, we believe that econsumers are an
interesting and exciting area of special populations research.
________________________________
From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum on behalf of Kevin Rioux
Sent: Thu 7/14/2005 12:30 PM
To: JESSE@listserv.utk.edu
Subject: 2nd Post--ASIST SIG USE Annual Research Symposium: Call for
Participation
Colleagues:
Below is a call to participate in the SIG USE Annual Research Symposium,
which will be held on Saturday, October 29, 2005 at the Westin Charlotte,
Charlotte, NC, during the 2005 ASIS&T Annual Meeting.
This year's theme is "Connecting Research and Practice: Special
Populations".
Dr. Brenda Dervin will be our introductory presenter.
Formal papers are not expected; rather, the symposium will follow a
seminar format focusing on participant discussion. To apply for the
symposium, please send a 300 word synopsis nominating a special
population
to the symposium organizers by August 15, 2005 (deadline extended from
August 1). Additional details about the symposium and participation are
outlined below.
For more information about this symposium/workshop, and the ASIS&T Annual
Meeeting, please refer to
http://www.asis.org/Conferences/AM05/sig_use_workshop.html
Regards,
Kevin Rioux
Dept. Library and Information Studies
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
*************************************************************************
**************
5th Annual Research Symposium of the
Special Interest Group on Information Needs, Seeking, and Use (SIG USE)
of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T)
Connecting Research and Practice: Special Populations
Saturday, October 29, 2005, 1-6pm, The Westin Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
Call for Participation
Information behavior (IB) researchers are increasingly turning their
attention to "special populations," people who share particular
situations
that yield unique ways in which they need, seek, manage, give, and use
information. For example, recent studies of different age groups and
studies dealing with people with specific illnesses have contributed to
IB
theory building and the field's overall understanding in important ways.
The goal of the 2005 SIG USE Symposium is to examine selected special
populations and ways in which related research has led to changes in the
practice of designing and delivering information services.
The symposium will begin with an introductory presentation:
The Burden of Being Special:
Adding Methodological Clarity to Defining, Researching, and Serving
Special Populations
Brenda Dervin
Professor of Communication and Joan N. Huber Fellow in Social and
Behavioral Sciences
Ohio State University
Under the leadership of researchers and practitioners who focus on a
special population in their work, participants will discuss key studies
and identify their strengths and limitations for understanding and
serving
different groups. Through this process, participants will gain a deeper
understanding of different research and service approaches and will be
able to apply them in more valid and fruitful ways in their own work.
Ultimately, the symposium may produce a collection of best practice
research and service guidelines for special populations.
To apply to the symposium, experienced researchers and practitioners
should submit a 1-page synopsis (about 300 words) in which they nominate
a
particular population for discussion and summarize their (and other key)
related current research or practice. Those new to the field should
similarly nominate a population for discussion and describe their
research
or professional interests. Examples of potential populations include:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Children/Youth
Disabled
Elderly
Homeless
Immigrants
Managers
People dealing with illness
Stay-at-home parents
Formal papers are not expected; the symposium will follow a seminar
format
focusing on participant discussion. Synopses will be posted on the SIG
USE website (www.asis.org/SIG/SIGUSE/) prior to the meeting and will be
used to organize small-group discussions.
Synopses should be emailed to the symposium organizers by August 1, 2005;
applicants will be notified by September 1. Participation is limited to
40 people. Participants must register with ASIS&T for the symposium.
Registration by September 15, 2005: SIG USE members: $50, ASIS&T members:
$65, non-members: $75. Registration after September 15, 2005: SIG USE
members: $60, ASIS&T members: $75, non-members: $85.
Symposium Organizers
Anita Komlodi, Department of Information Systems, UMBC, komlodi@umbc.edu
Kevin Rioux, Dep't of Library and Info Studies, University of North
Carolina at Greensboro, ksrioux@lis-uncg.net
Hsin-liang (Oliver) Chen, School of Information, The University of Texas
at Austin
Crystal Fulton, Department of Library and Information Studies, University
College Dublin, Ireland
Ruth Vondracek, University Libraries, Oregon State University