CFP: Special Issue on Learning and Interacting in the Web: Social networks and social software in the Web 2.0

Special Issue on Learning and Interacting in the Web:
Social networks and social software in the Web 2.0

International Journal of Knowledge and Learning
Edited by:  Dr. Miltiadis D. Lytras
ISSN (Online): 1741-1017  - ISSN (Print): 1741-1009
URL: http://www.inderscience.com/ijkl

Special Issue Editors

Sheizaf Rafaeli, Center for the Study of the Information Society and the
Graduate School of Business, University of Haifa, Israel, sheizaf@rafaeli.net,
http://sheizaf.rafaeli.net   

Stephen Downes, National Research Council Canada, Canada,
stephen@downes.ca, http://www.downes.com   

Miltiadis Lytras, Research Academic Computer Technology Institute and
Computer Engineering and Informatics Department, University of Patras, Hellas,
Lytras@ceid.upatras.gr   

Ambjorn Naeve, Knowledge Management Research Group, Royal Insitute of
Technology, Sweden, http://kmr.nada.kth.se, amb@nada.kth.se

 

Call for Papers

Knowledge and Learning are social phenomena as well as human- centric. In simple words the deployment of emerging technologies to knowledge and learning requires a multilevel support of individuals,
teams, communities and networks.  The evolution of technologies has really made difficult the distinction between the various levels of reference. In simple words people are not isolated from their micro- or
macro-environment. The technology-supported information highways have developed unforeseen opportunities for knowledge and learning flows between the peers in this network.

According to Finin et all (2005), Social networks are explicit representations of the relationships between individuals and groups in a community. In the abstract, these networks are just simple graphs with
nodes for the people and groups and links for the relationships. In practice, the links can encode all kinds of relationships – familial, friendship, professional or organizational. Social network theory, the study of such social networks, has developed techniques found useful in many fields, including sociology, anthropology, psychology and organizational studies…Virtual or online communities are groups of people connected
through the Internet and other information technologies. These have become an important part of modern society and contribute to life in many contexts - social, educational, political and business. The communication technologies and infrastructures used to support virtual communities have evolved with the Internet and include electronic mailing lists, bulletin boards, usenet, IRC, Wikis, and blogs.

Downes (2005), argues that personal descriptions, as found in social networks, and resource descriptions, as found in the semantic web, should be merged to form a single network, the semantic social network.

It seems that Knowledge and Learning domain enters in a new era where Micro-contents (1)  provide the most critical asset. Web 2.0 (2) is the new buzzword with great potential.

The International Journal of Knowledge and Learning seeks original
manuscripts for the Special Issue on “Learning and Interacting in the
Web: Social networks and social software in the Web 2.0” scheduled to
appear in a mid-late 2007 issue.

The key motivation for this special issue is to go beyond the verbalisms
and the wishful thinking for the critical role of networks for the promotion of knowledge and learning.

So this is the theme of the special issue. We invite open minds,
academics, and practitioners to contribute their research on how social
networks and social software create new opportunities, exploiting
leading edge approaches on design and modeling of systems towards
the vision of Web 2.0  

References:
Downes S. (2005), Semantic networks and social networks, The Learning
Organization, Vol. 12 No. 5, pp. 411-417

Finin T., Ding L. and Zou L. (2005), Social networking on the semantic web, The Learning Organization, Vol. 12 No. 5, pp. 418 – 435

Lytras M., Sicilia M.A., Kinshuk, Sampson D. (2005) , "Special Issue on Semantic and social aspects of learning in organizations", The Learning Organization Journal, Volume 12, Issue 5, 2005,
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContainer.do?containerType=Issue&containerId=22676


Topics:
Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Social network analysis as applied to the Web.
- New forms of interaction in social systems.
- FOAF and other metadata schema describing individuals and social ties.
- Folksonomies, tagging and other collaboration-based categorization systems.
- Sharing contents in on-line communities.
- Blogging as a social activity and approaches to semantic blogs.
- Wikis, semantic Wikis and other collaborative knowledge creation systems.
- Collaborative filtering in social settings.
- Analyzing social interaction for finding knowledge on Web users.

Important Dates
ASAP - Initial contact with Guest editors for ideas sharing 30th Sept 2006-Abstract submissions 15th Dec 2006-Submission of manuscripts 15th Feb 2007-Notification to authors 15th April 2007-Final versions due Mid-Late 2007-Publication

Style and Author Guidelines
Submitted articles must not have been previously published or currently
submitted for journal publication elsewhere. As an author, you are responsible for understanding and adhering to our submission guidelines. You can access them by clicking on http://www.inderscience.com/papers/about.php
Please thoroughly read these before submitting your manuscript.

Please submit your paper to Dr. Miltiadis D. Lytras
(lytras@ceid.upatras.gr)


 1) See http://www.microlearning.org/
 2) See http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html