PRESENCE 2008
The 11th Annual International Workshop on Presence

October 16 - 18
Padova, Italy

PRESENCE 2008
11th Annual International Workshop on Presence
Padova, Italy
October 16-18, 2008

First Call for Papers

Submission deadline: May 23, 2008

Full details available at http://ispr.info

OVERVIEW

Academics and practitioners with an interest in the concept of (tele)presence are invited to submit their work for presentation at the 11th Annual International Workshop on Presence, to be held in Padova, Italy, on October 16-18, 2008. Often described as a sense of “being there” in a mediated environment, telepresence is broadly defined as a psychological state or subjective perception in which a person fails to accurately and completely acknowledge the role of technology in an experience. It is a rich, fascinating subject of scientific investigation, artistic exploration and diverse application, with increasingly important implications for the ways in which people interact and technologies are developed.

Designing technologies and imagining practices to modify, prolong and reconfigure the possibilities of being present has been a continuous endeavor of the human species, from early attempts at constructing communication and transportation devices, to the many current technologies we continue to develop to reach other places and people. Originally focused on bringing “presence” from the real world to a simulated one, the phenomenon is today analyzed and investigated in the context of diverse environments and involves questioning simple distinctions between “‘real” and “artificial”. This opening to a wide range of mediated environments is accompanied by a growing involvement of different research fields that are continuously updating and modifying the contours of presence scholarship. The phenomenon of presence is challenging from a scientific point of view as much as it is viable in everyday life, where people participate in simultaneous mediated experiences, feeling present or co-present in digital locations without any need for explicit instructions and orchestrating technical and cognitive resources to control and enhance presence. What it means to be present in mediated environments is then an extremely relevant and enticing question, bearing all sorts of implications for the design and application of diverse technologies.

PRESENCE 2008 is co-organized by the International Society for Presence Research (ISPR) and the Human Technology Lab (HTLab) at the University of Padua.

The conference will be preceded by two parallel half-day events devoted to:

• Ethical and Societal Implications of Presence Technologies (organized by the PASION EU project)
  
  
• Second European Workshop on Cybertherapy and Rehabilitation in Europe (organized by HTLab and Interactive Media Institute-Europe in collaboration with the Journal of Cybertherapy and Rehabilitation)

TOPICS

Continuing with the series of annual workshops, PRESENCE 2008 will provide an open discussion forum to share ideas regarding concepts, measurement techniques, technologies, and applications related to presence. Issues of prominent interest include (but are not limited to):

• Presence in shared virtual environments and online communities
• Presence in social interactions with virtual agents and digital counterparts
• Real bodies, avatars and cyborgs
• Presence and ubiquity with mobile and geo-location technologies
• Presence as a socio-cultural achievement; practices, preferences and material resources to manifest presence
• Realistic action in virtual environments
• Parasocial interaction and relationships 
• Cognitive processes and the sense of presence
• Linguistic and non-verbal strategies to create, negotiate and challenge presence in mediated environments
• Neuropsychology of presence 
• Presence affordances in digital technologies
• 3D sound, acoustic environments and presence
• Advanced broadcast and cinematic displays (stereoscopic TV, HDTV, IMAX)
• Haptic and tactile displays
• Holography
• Affective and socio-affective interfaces 
• Presence analysis, evaluation, and measurement techniques 
• Causes and consequences (effects) of presence
• Presence augmentation through social, physical, and contextual cues
• Presence, involvement and digital addiction
• Presence applications (education and training; medicine; e-health and cybertherapy; entertainment; communication and collaboration; teleoperation; usability and design; art and performance, etc.) 
• Presence theory; historical investigation of presence concepts; fictions, constructions and realism; transportation, flow, absorption, awareness; philosophical perspectives on presence 
• Ethical and societal implications of presence technologies
• The future of presence experiences

Original, high quality papers are sought which make substantial contributions to the field. All accepted papers will be collected in the printed volume (with ISBN) of the official conference Proceedings, and will also be permanently available for download on the ISPR conference archive (http://ispr.linfo).

Authors may also be invited to revise their paper for publication in a special issue of PsychNology Journal (ISSN: 1720-7525 www.psychnology.org), or a special issue of Virtual Reality (ISSN: 1359-4338/1434-9957; http://www.springer.com/computer/computer+imaging/journal/10055)

CONFERENCE FORMAT

Like the earlier workshops, PRESENCE 2008 will have an interactive format in which all participants (attendees, presenters, invited speakers) attend each of the sessions as well as several social events, allowing participants to exchange ideas and build knowledge together as the conference progresses. More information on the conference program, on local accommodations and on the registration modalities will be available later in 2008. Other calls for papers will follow. The language of the conference is English.

VENUE

The conference will be hosted by Human Technologies Lab (HTLab) at The University of Padova, Italy.

For more information about Padova visit the Padova Tourist web site.

SUBMISSIONS

We invite researchers and practitioners to submit work in the following categories:

• Papers: Comprehensive descriptions of research or design work or theoretical investigation within the scope of the workshop. Papers must relate to existing literature on presence and make an original contribution to it. Papers are 4 to 10 pages including references in the PRESENCE 2008 template format (see submission page at http://ispr.info). Accepted papers will be included in the proceedings, and will be allocated time for oral presentation, as well as a 30 second oral preview during the first plenary session.
  
  
• Panels: Sets of presentations on a single theme or topic within the scope of the workshop. Submitters are encouraged to be creative regarding both the topic or theme and the format for panel proposals, which must identify and provide contact information for all proposed participants. Panel proposals are 4 to 10 pages including references in the PRESENCE 2008 template format (see submission page at http://ispr.info). Accepted panels will be included in the proceedings, and will be allocated time for oral presentation, as well as a 30 second oral preview during the first plenary session.
  
  
• Posters: Visual display presentations. Poster proposals are limited to 4 pages including references in the conference template format. Accepted poster proposals will be published in the conference proceedings. Posters will be displayed on a 100 cm high, 70 cm wide board during a dedicated session of the conference and will be allocated a 30 second oral preview during the first plenary session.
  
  
• Demonstrations/exhibitions: Step-by-step audiovisual demonstrations and/or hands-on experiences of non-commercial work within the scope of the workshop. Proposals for demonstrations/exhibitions are limited to 4 pages in the PRESENCE 2008 template format. Accepted demonstration/exhibition proposals will be included in the conference proceedings and will be presented during a dedicated session of the conference. For the exhibitions of commercial products, please contact ISPR for sponsorship terms and opportunities.

All submissions will be made through the conference online submission system, and will undergo a double-blind peer-review process by at least two selected reviewers.

Please submit your work online at the submission page of the conference web site at http://ispr.info by the conference deadline of May 23, 2008.

IMPORTANT DATES

• May 23, 2008 - Submissions due
• May 15, 2008 - Early registration opens
• July 7, 2008  - Acceptance/Rejection notifications
• September 1, 2008 - Finished, camera-ready papers due (electronic submission)
• September 5, 2008 - Early registration closes
• October 1, 2008 - Late registration closes (onsite registration only)

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

Conference Co-Chairs

Luciano Gamberini, Anna Spagnolli (HTLab, University of Padova, Italy)

Program Committee (tentative)

Mariano Alcaniz, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain
Ilkka Arminen, University of Tampere, Finland
Carlo Alberto Avizzano, Scuola Superiore S. Anna, Italy
Ann-Sofie Axelsson, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Jeremy N. Bailenson, Stanford University, USA
Rosa Baños, University of Valencia, Spain
Woody Barfield, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Gary Bente, University of Cologne, Germany
David Benyon, Napier University, UK
Frank Biocca, Michigan State University, USA
Edwin Blake, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Cristina Botella Arbona, Universitat Jaume I, Spain
Cheryl Campanella Bracken, Cleveland State University, USA
Wolfgang Broll, Fraunhofer Institute, Germany
Yvonne de Kort, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Jonathan Freeman, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
Doron Friedman, Sammy Ofer School of Communications, IDC Herzliya, Isreael
Andrea Gaggioli, Università Cattolica di Milano, Italy
Luciano Gamberini, University of Padua, Italy
Marco Gillies, University College London, UK
Ilona Heldal, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Wijnand Ijsselsteijn, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Giulio Jacucci, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Finland
Matthew T. Jones, Temple University, USA
Nicole Kraemer, University of Cologne, Germany
Rita Lauria, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, USA
Kwan Min Lee, University of Southern California, USA
Jane Lessiter, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
Christian Licoppe, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Télecommunications, France
Matthew Lombard, Temple University, USA
Katerina Mania, University of Sussex, UK
Fabrizia Mantovani, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Italy
Panos Markopoulos, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Francesco Martino, University of Padova, Italy
Rod McCall, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany
Caroline Neveyan, Performing Arts Labs, UK
Miriam Reiner, Technion: Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Giuseppe Riva, Università Cattolica di Milano, Italy
Albert Skip Rizzo, University of Southern California, USA
Daniela Romano, University of Sheffield, UK
Maria Victoria Sanchez-Vives, ICREA Research Professor, IDIBA, Spain
Fabiola Scarpetta, University of Padova, Italy
Ralph Schroeder, Oxford Internet Institute, UK
Melissa E. Selverian, Temple University, USA
Mel Slater, University College London, UK
Michael Smyth, Napier University, UK
Anna Spagnolli, University of Padua, Italy
Phil Turner, Napier University, UK
Susan Turner, Napier University, UK
Aleksander Väljamäe, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Paul F.M.J. Verschure, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Vinoba Vinayagamoorthy, BBC Research & Innovation, UK
John Waterworth, Umeå University, Sweden

CONTACT

For more information or assistance, please send an e-mail to the conference co-chairs at info.presence08@gmail.com or to ISPR at help@ispr.info.

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