To participate in the workshop, you must submit a proposal by September 15 2024, midnight AOE
Since the field’s inception, safety has been a theme in HCI, ranging from work about the potential harms of new technologies, to understanding technology- facilitated violence, to the relationship between online and offline harms. In this workshop, we will grapple with open questions in the area of safety in HCI such as:
- How should we think about different kinds of digital harms and risks in relationship to one another?
- What kinds of safety research from other fields are not well-represented in HCI currently, but should be?
- What is the best way to design safety into systems?
- How can we evaluate when a sociotechnical system is “safe”?
Potential participants working in any area of HCI and safety are welcome to submit. The goal of all submissions is that the submitters demonstrate familiarity with the core areas of inquiry forthe workshop as outlined in this proposal. You may wish to consider organizing your submission around one or more of the following questions:
- Strategies for generalizing: How should we think about different kinds of harms and risks in relationship to one another? What kinds of safety research from other fields are not well-represented in HCI currently, but should be? With the advent of online safety bills across the world, how should we communicate about the safety concerns of HCI outside our field?
- Safety by Design: What is the best way to design “safety” into systems? How can we evaluate when a system is “safe”? What are case studies that exemplify safety being incorporated at every step of the design process? What are the necessary antecedents of safety?
- Future envisioning: What future research directions are most important for our community to pursue? Are there future research directions not worth pursuing? How should we continue to move from foundational research to real world protections?
Submissions should use the above questions as a starting point and discuss aspects of how safety relates to submitter’s research. Acceptable formats include: position statements, design fictions, slide decks, audio/video recordings, etc.. Written submissions should be no more than 750 words, audio/visual presentations no longer than 5 minutes. Other submission types should reflect comparable effort.
Submissions should be made via email to whatissafety@google.com.
Submissions will be evaluated on knowledge of and interest in the topic areas outlined above. At least one author of each accepted submission must attend the workshop and all participants must register for both the workshop and for at least one day of the conference. The synchronous portion will be in-person. There will be options for asynchronous, remote engagement before and after the workshop. Due to the sensitive nature of discussion topics, this event will be under Chatham House Rules. Accepted submissions will be shared privately with other attendees and report outs will highlight major discussion points without individual attribution.