IWDS 2021 – the 1st Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Digital Society

IWDS 2021 – the 1st Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Digital Society

Do you have a research idea that is both interdisciplinary and linked to the digital society? Would you like to present your research, meet other researchers with similar or complementary interests, and potentially start new collaborations? Then this event may be for you!

The 1st Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Digital Society will be held on December 7, 2021 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. We aim to bring together researchers interested in the intersection between digital technology and society.

Digital technology – from social robotics to smart mobile devices, from global social media networks to fluent natural language processing tools, from realistic virtual environments to knowledgeable virtual agents – is rapidly changing, and society is changing with it. At the same time, technological solutions are sought for new societal problems such as global social justice, climate change, human mobility and sustainability, or transnational (re)organization of politics and economy. To study how digital technologies and societal problems interact, we believe in supporting researchers who take on interdisciplinary approaches.

This workshop, organized by the Network Institute, aims to bring together researchers from different backgrounds interested in the Digital Society and to give them the opportunity to present their work, get to know and learn from each other, and initiate common projects. Participating researchers are invited to submit a research paper (either a previously published work or a “work in progress“). They will have the opportunity to show a poster and give a very short lightning presentation. During the conference and the follow-up borrel, participants will have the opportunity to interact and connect with colleagues from inside and outside the VU.

Submission Guidelines for researchers

We invite all researchers interested in interdisciplinary topics related to the Digital Society to contribute to our program. There will be a (lightweight) evaluation of all submissions. These should consist of a representative paper of your research (previously published or “work in progress” – the workshop is non-archival)

All submissions must be made in PDF format through the EasyChair platform https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=1stiwds

We highlight that, in order to facilitate participation, we are not requiring researchers to create new contents for the workshop: submissions can be previously-published work or “work in progress” papers.

Program

The program is currently in the making, and will include short presentations, a poster session, contributed lightning talks and a borrel.

Venue

Atrium room – 1st floor of the Medical Faculty building, VU Amsterdam.

Important dates

Submission deadline: Nov 15, 2021
Registration deadline: Dec 1, 2021
Event date: Tuesday Dec 7, 2021 @ 14:00-17:00 followed by a borrel 17:00-18:00

Organization

The workshop is organized and sponsored by the Network Institute, the hub for interdisciplinary research on the Digital Society at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Organizing committee

• Kim Baraka — VU, Department of Computer Science (Social AI group)
• Martina Testori — VU, Department of Organization Sciences (Force of Gossip group)
• Ioana Vrabiescu — VU, Department of Organization Sciences (Organizational Ethnography)
• Kousar Aslam — VU, Department of Computer Science (Software and Sustainability group)
• Tomislav Karačić — VU, KIN Center for Digital Innovation (AI@Work group)
• Antske Fokkens — VU, Dept. of Language, Literature and Communication (Computational Linguistics and Text Mining Lab) / Eindhoven University of Technology (Algorithms, Geometry and Applications cluster)
• Ivano Malavolta — VU, Department of Computer Science (Software and Sustainability group)