Business meeting minutes, Athens, Greece, 17 June, 2003

Athens, Greece
June 17, 2003

The meeting was called to order at 2:15 PM by Julie Kendall (US), Chair of the Working Group.

1. Introduction

Julie thanked our hosts in Greece, particularly Organizing Chair Angeliki Poulymenakou (GR), as well as the conference General Chair Geoff Walsham (UK), and Program Chairs Ramiro Montealegre (US/ES) and Mikko Korpela (FI) for an outstanding conference.

2. Forthcoming Workshops and Conferences

There will be an Oasis Workshop in Seattle (US) immediately prior to ICIS in December 2003. The submission deadline is September 30. More information can be found on the WG 8.2 website at www.ifipwg82.org. The website provides links to business meeting minutes and the newsletter as well as calls for papers. Julie Kendall (US) encouraged attendees to submit a small paper. Each presentation at a workshop is only 5-7 minutes, with lots of time allocated for feedback.

The next Working Conference, "Relevant Theory and Informed Practice: Looking Forward from a 20-Year Perspective on IS Research," will be held in Manchester (UK), 15-17 July 2004. Program Co-Chairs Duane Truex (US) and Trevor Wood-Harper (UK) gave a small presentation on the Manchester conference. This conference draws upon the 1984 Manchester conference with its focus on research methods, and the 1990 Copenhagen and 1997 Philadelphia conferences, which also addressed research methods. The submission deadline is 10 September 2003. More information can be found via the WG 8.2 website at www.ifipwg82.org.

At the last business meeting (December 2002 in Barcelona) we approved a proposal to have a Working Conference in Cleveland (USA), 1-3 August 2005. The theme of this conference will be "Designing Ubiquitous Information Environments: Socio-Technical Issues and Challenges". The General Chair will be Kalle Lyytinen (US). Program Co-Chairs will be Carsten Sorensen (UK) and Youngjin Yoo (US). The Organizing Chair has not yet been named.

Julie Kendall announced that we are looking for volunteers to host an Oasis Workshop prior to ICIS in December 2004 in Washington, DC (US). The organizer is responsible for coordinating the arrangements, publicizing the call for papers, and publishing the abstracts as well as possibly the complete papers on the web. There is normally a nominal fee charged to attendees to cover the cost of the room and coffee breaks, etc.

There were no volunteers at the meeting. However, Isabel Ramos (PO), came forward after the meeting to volunteer to take charge of this event.

3. Proposals for Upcoming Working Conferences

Julie Kendall presented a schedule of upcoming meetings and the length of time between each meeting. It will be 13 months until the July 2004 conference in Manchester, another 13 months until the August 2005 conference in Cleveland, and then 16 months until a potential December 2006 conference. It could be 12-18 months between that conference and another conference in December 2007 or July 2008. Previously, the Working Group has approved upcoming conferences approximately 3.5 years in advance. Julie raised the issue of timing—if we vote on proposals too far in advance, are we giving a fair chance to all who want to propose?

A proposal was presented by Debra Howcroft (UK) and Eileen Trauth (US/EI) for a Working Conference to be held in December 2006 in Limerick, Ireland. Organizing co-chairs would be Brian Fitzgerald (EI) and Tom Butler (EI). The general theme will be social exclusion, which refers both to people and groups. Limerick has easy access to/from Shannon Airport. The conference will be held immediately prior to ICIS, which will be in London. Geoff Walsham (UK) and Heinz Klein (US) commented on the relevance of this topic to WG 9.4. Geoff suggested that the organizers make sure that publicity about the conference should be shared with the WG 9.4 constituency. Heinz asked that, given the theme's link to developing countries, wouldn't it make sense to have representative from WG 9.4 on the program committee? Eileen Trauth said that these issues would be considered, and there would be a panel at the conference made up of representatives from different Working Groups addressing different IFIP themes.

David Avison (UK) moved that we vote to accept this proposal. Geoff Walsham (UK) seconded. Following a show of hands of current members, a vote was held and the proposal was accepted.

Julie then asked if there were any further conference proposals to be presented (although no vote would be conducted at this time). Tony Salvadore (US) presented a proposal for Eleanor Wynn (US), Sandra Sieber (ES), and Kevin Crowston (US). This conference would be located in Portland, Oregon in July or August 2007. The proposed theme is "Virtuality in Times of Change".

4. New Business

Richard Baskerville (US) proposed to extend the appointments of the current chair and membership of the Award Committee. A motion was made to keep the group as it currently is, rather than change the membership. The motion was passed.

5. New Members

Names were solicited of individuals who were qualified and interested in becoming new members of IFIP WG 8.2. The following individuals were nominated for membership, subject to a verification of past attendance by the Secretary:

* Kathy McGrath (UK)
* Chris Atkinson (UK)
* Joe Feller (EI)
* Margunn Aanestad (NO)
* Agneta Nilsson (SE)
* Bongsug Chae (US)
* Anja Mursu (FI)
* Nabeel Al-qirim (NZ)

6. Other Business

TC 8 Chair Dewald Roode (SA) encouraged members to attend WITFOR (World Information Technology Forum), which will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, 27-29 August 2003. Fees will be waived for WG 8.2 or 9.4 members. For more information, see www.witfor.org.

David Avison (UK) said a few words about the PhD Supervisors' Workshop sponsored by TC 8 that was held the day before the conference. Forty-five people attended the workshop, and at the end agreed to produce a book. David thanked Angeliki Poulymenakou (GR) for her help in arranging the workshop and related events.

On a somber note, Roberta Lamb (US) shared with the group news that Rob Kling had passed away suddenly. She announced that a Festschrift, a volume of writings presented as a tribute to a scholar, will be published by Information Technology & People. Submissions which reflect the concepts and issues of social informatics are invited. In addition, several of Rob's colleagues will be invited to submit short, retrospective pieces. For information, contact Roberta Lamb (US) or Steve Sawyer (US), or see www.itandpeople.org.

There was no other business, and the meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m.

—Nancy L. Russo (US), Secretary