Call for Participation

Designing for communities

an interaction design summer school

organized by the i3 network and the Interaction Design Institute

Ivrea – September 1st – 10th, 2001

with the collaboration of Consorzio Roma Ricerche, DFKI, Domus Academy, Marconi, University of Milano – Bicocca, University of Strathclyde,  Xerox Research Centre Europe

Concept
i3 (intelligent information interfaces) has been a research program launched by the European Community in 1996. Its aim was to promote research focusing on the interaction with and through the information and communication technology by communities of users. The research performed under its brand, proposing in new form the question of user-centered design of ICT applications, has contributed to a radical innovation of the software culture opening it to the design culture (social scientists, technologists and industrial designers cooperated in many of the i3 projects) and proposing a radical change in the software development: from interaction patterns to functions insitead of from functions to interfaces! Virtual and augmented places have been designed to open new interaction possibilities to different communities of users.Even the learning environments have been reconsidered within the above perspective. 
i3 was not an isolated event: the same perspective has inspired several research centers and schools in Europe and in the United States. The Interaction Design Institute has been recently  created to train students coming from both the design and the software field in the new area of interaction design.

Interaction Design is still a dynamic research field where new concepts and new ideas are continuously proposed ans discussed to cope with technological innovation and with the emerging neds of both social and professional communities. We think that it is now time to offer to young designers, educated in computer science and engineering, social sciencee and ethnography, and industrial design, working in both universities and private companies, the occasion to develop their interaction design competence. The interaction design sumer school promoted by the i3 network and the Interaction Design Institute has this aim.

The theme chosen for the 2001 interaction design summer school is “Designing for Communities”. Its main focus will be, on one side, on the new apporaches for user-centered design capable to develop the cooperation between diverse cultures in the design process, on the other, on the support needed by various types of communities (local and learning communities, communities of practice and/or of interest, …) for developing their identity and/or improving their performances.

We think that the emphasis on the user side of the design process is an important point for educating interaction designers who will be capable to design and develop useful ans successful applications.

The Faculty
The School will be directed by Gillian Crampton Smith (Interaction - Ivrea) and Giorgio De Michelis (University of Milano – Bicocca) coadiuvated by a direction board composed by: 

Riccardo Antonini (Consorizo Roma Ricerche; organization and finance)
Alberto Bianchi (Marconi; ateliers’ coordination)
Thomas Rist (DFKI, Saarbruecken; publicity and external relations)

Among the lecturers there will be:
•	John Bowers – KTH, Stockolm
•	Gillian Crampton Smith – Interaction - Ivrea
•	Giorgio De Michelis – University of Milano - Bicocca
•	Wendy McKay  - Inria, Paris
•	Thomas Rist – DFKI, Saarbruecken
•	Tom Rodden – University of Nottingham

Among the atelier leaders there will be:
•	Alan Munro – University of Strathclyde
•	Elena Pacenti – Domus Academy
•	Peter Rist – DFKI, Saarbruecken
•	Dave Snowdon – Xerox Research Centre Europe, Grenoble
…
 
Program
The summer school will mix listening to key note speakers and creative group-work lead by young designers.

Groupwork will be performed by groups of 10 students in Ateliers. Each Atelier will have a leader who will propose its brief and guide the group towards the development of an idea and its presentation to the school participants. Afternoons will be dedicated to groupwork, but students can spend on it their evenings!

The titles of the lectures as well as the brief for the atelier will be communicated later.

For the time lecturers and invited speakers will be at the school they will be at disposition of the students for interaction within the Ateliers and on singular individual problems.

The school aims to contribute to create a warm cooperative clima where all participants (students, lecturers and invited speakers) will interact and communicate freely and intensely. 

The temptative program of the interaction design summer school will be the following:
											
	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	
9.00	opening	Rist	Rodden	Mackay	Crampton Smith	ISP3	LE5	Bowers	ATELIER	De Michelis	
10.00	ISP1	Rist	Rodden	Mackay	Crampton Smith	ISP4	LE5	Bowers	“	De Michelis	
11.00	cb	cb	cb	cb	cb	cb	cb	cb	cb	cb	
11.30	Rist	Rodden	Mackay	Crampton Smith	ISP2	LE5	Bowers	De Michelis	ATELIER	closing	
12.30	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	
14.30	ATELIER'S	ATELIER	ATELIER	ATELIER	free time	ATELIER	ATELIER	ATELIER	PRESEN-		
15.30	PRESEN-	"	"	"	"	"	"	"	TATION OF		
16.30	TATION	"	"	"	"	"	"	"	ATELIER'S		
									OUTCOMES		

Who should attend
We expect to have participants from disciplines as computer science and technology, psychology and anthropology, industrial design, archtecture, etc.Master and PhD students as well as young designers with few years of experience working in universities, research centers and/or private companies all over the world are invited to apply for the interaction design summer school. They will have the occasion of listening to lectures by some highly reputed scholars in the field, of participating in design ateliers devoted to conceive innovative ideas for  supporting communities, of interacting for ten days in a warm social setting becoming part of a community of practice.

Fees
The fee for participating in the interaction design summer school is Euros 500. The fee covers school costs, lunches, coffee breaks and the school dinner. PhD students will have their fees covered by grants. We are arranging inexpensive lodging for school participants (below euros 20 per person per night). 

Important dates
Interested people should submit their application form before June 29.
All applicants will be notified if their application has been accepted or not before July 15.
Accepted applicants must submit their registration form before July 31.

www.i3summerschool.org (about the school);
www.i3net.org (about i3net);
www.interaction-ivrea.it (about Interaction - Ivrea).

For inquiries email to: i3summerschool@i3net.org