The Portuguese Catholic University of Lisbon and Carnegie Mellon University are very happy to announce the organization of the first conference on
“Information and Communication Technologies, Transparency and Corporate Responsibility: Social and Ethical Considerations in the Global Economy”.
The conference will be conducted in Lisbon, Portugal between the 7th and the 9th November 2007.
This event intends to join business and information ethics scholars and practitioners from all over the world.
General Chair of the conference is Prof. Deborah Johnson (Virginia University, USA). Co-Chairs are : Prof. Peter Madsen (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) and Prof. João César das Neves (Catholic University of Lisbon, Portugal).
General Information
This conference will take place at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon. The objective of the conference is to create a locus of discussion about transparency in business firms, social responsibility and the role of ICT. The conference is intended to generate international dialogue and interaction between scholars and practitioners from the many different fields that are relevant to the conference theme, including organizational behavior, business and business management, business ethics, computing, computer ethics, STS, applied ethics, and other fields. Broadly, there is a pressing need to improve the connections and the dialogue between the various scholarly communities of applied ethics from around the world. At the same time, the topic of transparency, social responsibility, and ICT is critically important. An international conference on such an important topic is an ideal opportunity to bring scholars from around the world together for a lively conversation.
There will be three major results directly arising from this event:
Three days of dedicated conference sessions and meetings
At least one book consisting of the best papers (to be published in 2008)
A special issue in the Ethics and Information Technology journal
Universidade Católica Portuguesa will be the on-site host and sponsor of the conference. Carnegie Mellon University (USA) will co-sponsor the conference.
Preliminary call for papers
The Conference seeks submissions that focus on any aspect of the nexus of transparency in business, social responsibility, and the role of ICT. However, two main streams will be emphasized: the first is related to the concept of “transparency” as it applies to social organizations of various kinds including governmental, as well as business, profit and non-profit; the second is related to the impact of ICT on organizational transparency. A list of possible topics includes:
Ethical concerns related to transparency in business organizations.
Case studies of transparent business practices and their use of ICT tools.
Ethical concerns related to transparency in other types of organizations (e.g. NGOs, educational, heath, and humanitarian).
Relationships and conflicts between the transparency and other ethical values (e.g. privacy).
Philosophical justifications and criticisms of the value of transparency.
Transparency metrics: How should it be measured?
Transparency and business performance: enhancement or obstacle?
The impact of ICT on transparency in business organizations.
The impact of ICT on transparency in other social organizations (e.g., NGOs, educational, heath and humanitarian)
Wiki, Blogs and so on: social and ethical issues
The Digital Divide: does transparency matter?
Submitted papers may be in form of research papers, case studies, review articles, etc. It may also be a combination of different forms.
Deadlines and Requirements
April 15, 2007: Abstract submission deadline – A one-page abstract (approximately 300 words), must be submitted for a preliminary review. Submitting an abstract will indicate the author’s interest in presenting at the conference.
April 30, 2007: Abstract authors will be notified of paper acceptance.
August 15, 2007: Paper submission deadline – 10 pages (4000- 5000 words) with 5 keywords (The Academy of Management Style Guide for Authors is kindly suggested).
Abstracts and the final version of papers should be sent to:
Antonino Vaccaro: vaccaro @andrew.cmu.edu
September 1, 2007: Authors will be informed as to the status of their submission. Authors of accepted papers will be given the opportunity to make final revisions (in response to the comments provided by reviewers) for a conference proceedings book.
September the 1st 2007: Final paper due, and conference registration deadline.
For further information, see:
www.cmu.edu/transparency2007/
