2013 Digital Societies and Social Technologies (DSST) Summer Institute
(A joint effort of the Consortium for Science of Sociotechnical Systems (CSST) and the Summer Social Webshop)
July 28 – August 1, 2013
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland USA
MOOCs, Education and learning; personal health and well-being; open innovation, eScience, and citizen science; co-production, open source, and new forms of work; cultural heritage and information access; energy management and climate change; civic hacking, engagement and government; disaster response; cybersecurity and privacy – these are just a few problem domains where effective design and robust understanding of complex sociotechnical systems is critical. To meet these challenges a trans-disciplinary community of scholars has come together from fields as wide ranging as CSCW, HCI, social computing, organization studies, information visualization, social informatics, sociology, information systems, medical informatics, computer science, ICT for development, education, learning science, journalism, and political science.
Through summer institutes (CSST), extended workshops (Social Webshop), preconference workshops at a wide variety of venues, and other activities (Digital Societies and Technology Research Coordination Network) this community of researchers from academia and industry has developed a strong focus on problems and opportunities arising from the interplay of social and technological systems which span individuals, groups, organizations, and societies.
The 2013 Summer Institute builds on this tradition to strengthen and expand this diverse community by bringing together graduate students, post doctoral students, faculty, and other researchers in four groups at the University of Maryland, College Park on July 28-August 1:
Doctoral students, post doctoral students, and pre-tenure faculty – Through mentoring, peer networking, and skill-building tutorials, doctoral students, post doctoral students, pre-tenure faculty, and early career researchers will identify substantive ways that the theories, approaches, and tools within the larger community can advance their work with the design and study of sociotechnical systems.
Established researchers – Prior summer institute/workshop participants and established researchers will network with other researchers (senior and junior), explore ideas and new directions, shape emerging research agendas, articulate critical challenges, and share knowledge about practices, tools, and approaches which have the potential to advance the design and study of sociotechnical systems.
Emerging multi-disciplinary research teams – Nascent groups of researchers seeking to develop cross-disciplinary collaborations will work with peers and mentors to refine problem statements and research goals; connect with collaborators with complementary skills and interests; and create actionable research agendas and funding proposals. Preference will be given to groups interested in designing and studying sociotechnical systems that address societal grand challenges such as (but not limited to) healthcare; energy management and climate change; cybersecurity and privacy; education and learning; disaster response; technology development and innovation; economic development and work; and civic engagement and participation.
Research infrastructure development teams – Groups of researchers interested in creating computational or analytic tools, data resources, training materials or other infrastructure to support the design and study of sociotechnical systems will work with one another, other Summer institute participants, and local developers. These infrastructure “hackathon” sessions will result in the creation of use cases, prototypes, draft materials, and when possible deployable systems and resources.
Support for the 2013 Summer Institute is currently being provided by the National Science Foundation via Digital Societies and Technology Research Coordination Network, the Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems (CSST), Summer Social Webshop, and the Center for the Advanced Study of Communities and Information (CASCI) and Human Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) at the University of Maryland.