This is funding for a two-day workshop entitled "Articulating the Computing Research Agenda in Social Computing Research" that will be held in the fall of 2012. Social Computing is an important new area of research that has given rise to a number of new journals, conferences and funding opportunities. A wide variety of topics and disciplinary approaches have been grouped under the label of "social computing," some of which have strong computer and information science components but others of which contribute to other academic disciplines. The goal of this workshop is to bring together experts in social computing to develop a framework for conceptualizing social computing as an area of computer and information sciences.
Specifically, the workshop will (a) consider what constitutes a social computing contribution in the information and computational sciences; (b) consider intellectual relationships between types of social computing contributions; (c) identify standards necessary for advancing social computing research; and (d) identify infrastructures that would help develop and support social computing research as part of a computing disciplines. Outcomes will include a published overview of the current state of social computing research, a set of educational goals for developing a future community of social computing scholars, the identification of publishing and other venues that can stimulate the exchange of ideas among the social computing researchers, and the identification of infrastructure needs.
The workshop will be organized as a series of discussions around six themes in social computing research within the computer and information sciences: (a) AI, machine learning and data mining; (b) social networking and network science; (c) quantitative methods; (d) qualitative methods; (e) systems and experimentation; and (f) design and broader impacts. One or more experts will lead each thematic discussion, during which the workshop attendees will consider issues such as social computing successes in that thematic area, critical research questions, and infrastructural needs.
Participants in the workshop will include invited experts in the thematic topic areas and researchers selected on the basis of position papers submitted in response to the call for participation. In addition, a number of slots will be reserved for advanced graduate students.
Intellectual Merit: The workshop will advance computer science and engineering by providing a framework for understanding current social computing research and for identifying future key research questions. It will also advance social computing research by identifying methods for community building and exchange of research findings.
Broader Impacts: Social computing is central to many areas critical to society, including emergency response, collective action, crowd-sourcing, sustainability, and health applications. The outputs of this workshop will help researchers identify computer and information science contributions that will advance these and related areas of public concern. The workshop will also include outreach efforts to engage underrepresented groups in STEM research.
