Dear friends,
we hope that you and your loved-ones are healthy and safe during the pandemic. We also hope that it will be possible to meet you in person in 2021. Fingers crossed.
In this message we want to inform you about the current status of EUSSET activities, our plans for the near future, and tell you how you can be involved in the EUSSET community. EUSSET is a Europe-based international association of researchers interested in practice-centered computing and socially embedded technologies.
Practice-Centered Computing and Socially Embedded Technologies impact on society by:
- Exploring the social situations and practices in which digital technologies are embedded.
- Developing new approaches to engage people in the participatory construction of practice-centered digital technologies.
- Contributing to the design of future practice-centered digital technologies.
The EUSSET organization is based on inclusiveness, transparency, and democracy; members vote every three years to elect the chair-elect and the treasurer.
EUSSET established a strong network through an open-access digital library, high-quality events (ECSCW, C&T, …), and an agile organisation (core team, steering committee, and members).
Since June 2020, the elected core team has been Myriam Lewkowicz, Hilda Tellioglu, and Thomas Ludwig. Together, they discussed the most urgent actions which needed to be taken to achieve the objectives of EUSSET. Steering Committee Positions (Chairs) were identified relating to the tasks that needed to be carried out. An open call was then issued and Chairs were appointed to the new Steering Committee to carry out the work which was identified.
We would like to share our overall objectives with you in this message, some of the actions we have been thinking about, and to introduce the chairs of the EUSSET Steering Committee (SC) who started in September 2020. The SC meets once a month to discuss our strategy and keep track of all our actions.
Our objectives are to build a stronger community and to prepare the future. From an internal perspective, we would like to reinforce the links among EUSSET members and to build knowledge. From an external perspective, our aims are to publicize the richness of what the community has produced and is producing, to engage with new communities and develop the EUSSET ‘Family’, to provide services, and to lobby (in particular in order for practice-centered research project to become a stronger part of the strategic agenda of the European Commission). For preparing the future, we are thinking of attracting more junior members through several services like mentoring, job finding, and networking, and of course our summer school, and travel grants.
To tackle all these ambitions, here is the enthusiastic team in charge:
- Chair: Myriam Lewkowicz (Troyes University of Technology, France)
- Chair-elect: Hilda Tellioglu (Vienna University of Technology, Austria)
- Treasurer: Thomas Ludwig (University of Siegen, Germany)
- Community Building: Fabiano Pinatti (University of Siegen, Germany)
- Future Research: Alan Chamberlain (University of Nottingham, UK)
- Conference planning: Annika Wolff (Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland)
- Conference Support: Thomas Ludwig (University of Siegen, Germany)
- Circles: Ozge Subasi (Koç University, Turkey)
- Valorization: Henrik Kosgaard (Aarhus University, Denmark)
- Digital Library: Michael Koch (Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany)
- Publicity/Website and Social Media: Mateusz Dolata (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
- Publicity/Blog: Gerolf Nauwerck (Uppsala University, Sweden)
- Publicity/non-EUSSET conferences: Alina Krischkowsky (University of Salzburg, Austria)
- Competence Network: Fabiano Pinatti (University of Siegen, Germany), Giorgio de Michelis (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy)
- Lobby: Boris de Ruyter (Philips Research, The Netherlands)
- Summer School: Ina Wagner (Vienna University of Technology, Austria), Claus Bossen (Aarhus University, Denmark)
- Travel Grants: Michael Muller (IBM Research, USA)
- Academic Mobility: Babak Farshchian (Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim, Norway)
- Early Career: Claudia Müller (University of Siegen, Germany)
- ACM Liaison: Pernille Bjørn (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Aleksandra Sarcevic (Drexel University, USA)
- JCSCW Liaison: Kjeld Schmidt (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)
- ECSCW Liaison: Last year and current general chairs (2020: Aleksandra Sarcevic, Drexel University, Claudia Müller and Gunnar Stevens, University of Siegen, Germany; 2021: Mateusz Dolata, Gerhard Schwabe, University of Zurich, Switzerland)
- C&T Liaison: Last year and current general chairs (2019: Hilda Tellioglu, Vienna University of Technology, Austria; 2021: Shelly Farnham, Third Place, USA; Douglas Schuler, The Evergreen State College Seattle, USA)
- Liaison to the Social Computing Verein: Volker Wulf (University of Siegen, Germany)
- Administrative Support: Julia Kraemer (University of Siegen, Germany)
- Honorary Chairperson: Volker Wulf (University of Siegen, Germany)
The first way to engage with EUSSET is to become a member.
In January, we will distribute a survey to strengthen the interaction with the EUSSET community (through its existing and potential future members) and their current areas of activities/interests, and to understand how our community wants EUSSET to develop. This survey will be an instrument to start an interaction between people interested in practice-centered computing and the EUSSET SC, and to communicate about the new services EUSSET is offering, and a way to be engaged. So stay tuned!
We wish you all a nice and relaxing break with friends and family, please stay safe!
The EUSSET Steering Committee