(last updated September 25, 2005)

CFP: Digital Citizenship: Design, Documentation, and the Divide

Editors: Adrienne Lamberti and Anne R. Richards

(A PDF of this CFP also is available.)

The practical and ethical responsibilities of document designers have been greatly complicated by the digital divide. Because of the increasing reliance on new media to convey information previously conveyed in print, critical inquiry into the accessibility and usability of digital documentation is needed.

The editors of the anthology Digital Citizenship request abstracts for papers responding to the following broad questions: How might cultural critique of the accessibility of new media shape our understanding and teaching of digital documentation? How can digital documentation be designed to better reflect a sensitivity to human factors? How are the conceptualization, writing, and testing activities traditionally associated with print documentation influencing digital documentation? What are the social consequences of this influence? Abstracts should address one of three loose categories: Constructing the Profession, Documenting the Organization, and Instructing the Consumer. Examples of relevant areas of inquiry follow.

Constructing the Profession. How has the move from print to digital documentation hindered/promoted professional change? What roles has digital documentation played in defining the professions/their norms? To what extent should/does professional documentation reflect access differences among members and/or potential members? How has professional outreach been affected by digital documentation?

Documenting the Organization. To what extent have questions of class, gender, ability, ethnicity, race, and/or age influenced analyses of the audiences for digital documentation within organizations? How have organizations used digital documentation to integrate across national/ethnic/linguistic boundaries? How have organizations balanced access concerns against financial incentives to digitize?

Instructing the Consumer. To what extent have differences between print and digital document audiences’ reading responses been incorporated into the construction of usability tests, and how have these differences been conceptualized and measured? How should/do designers shape effective documentation for “global” audiences? How should/does class, gender, ability, ethnicity, race, and/or age shape the teaching and practice of digital documentation for the marketplace?

The schedule for participating in Digital Citizenship is as follows:

Submission of 500-word abstract	December 1, 2005
Notification of acceptance	December 15, 2005
Submission of completed chapter	April 15, 2006

Submit abstracts to A. Lamberti by December 1, 2005; email either editor with queries:

Adrienne Lamberti

lamberti@uni.edu

Department of English Language and Literature

Professional Writing Program

University of Northern Iowa

119 Baker Hall

Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0502

Anne R. Richards

Anne_Richards@kennesaw.edu

Department of English
Kennesaw State University
1000 Chastain Road 

Kennesaw, GA 30144-5591