Enculturating Interfaces

Workshop on IUI 2008, 13th January 2008, Canary Islands

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Call for Papers

The workshop is centered around three main research challenges:
  1. Computationally viable models of cultural aspects of conversations: Cultural norms and values penetrate all our communications and interactions by giving us heuristics how to behave and how to interpret the verbal and nonverbal behavior of others. To make such a notion like culture available for computation, we need a very specific theory of culture that takes its effects on communication and interaction into account. Questions to be answered include: Are there computationally viable models/theories of culture? How to compute cultural characteristcs in communciation? What types/aspects of verbal/nonverbal behaviors are cultural specific, and what are universal?
  2. Reliable empirical data on cultural/cross-cultural interaction: To realize technical systems that take cultural influences on behavior into account, precise data analysis on how this influence manifests itself is necessary. In the literature statements are often given in very general forms without references to the precise data on which the observations are based. Questions to be answered include: Where and how to get reliable empirical data about cultural pattern of interaction and interpretation? How can verbal and nonverbal behaviors be analysed to gain insights into cultural specific aspects of face-to-face communications?
  3. Enculturating conversational interfaces: Having identified cultural influences on verbal/nonverbal communicative behaviors, it remains to be shown how this can be applied to the development of human-computer interfaces. Questions to be answered include: How can interfaces reflect cultural norms and values of communication? How can culture specific/adaptive interfaces further cultural awareness? Are interface agents the ideal way of enculturating the coversational interfaces e.g. by adapting to the user's cultural background, by presenting information in a culturally accepted way, or even by serving as role-playing partners to increase cultural awareness in serious games?
The workshop aims at bringing together researchers from computer science, psychology, linguistics, and cultural studies to discuss the state of the art in the area, explore modes of cooperation and identify the challenges to be tackled in the future. Especially the networking aspect is one of the primary goals of the workshop. Thus, the workshop will not be solely organized around traditional paper presentations. Instead, it is planned to have some extended discussions about identifying the main challenges and establishing possibilities for frequent interchanges. We encourage the submission of long (6-8 pages) and short papers (3-4 pages) as well as position statements which cover one or more of the research challenges raised above. Papers should adhere to the IUI format and will be reviewed by at least two members of the program committee. Send your submission in pdf format to rehm AT informatik.uni-augsburg.de and nakano AT cc.tuat.ac.jp.
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Important dates (extended deadlines)