This is a call for papers for the 50th anniversary of the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), a leading IEEE conference providing space for presentation and discussion relating to various areas of information, computer, social and system sciences. Join us in celebrating 50 years of excellence and a community of colleagues. CFP: HICSS Social Networking and Community TRACK: Digital and Social Media 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) January 4-7, 2017, Grand Hyatt, Kauai, Hawaii PAPERS DUE: June 15, 2016 via the HICSS conference system ORGANIZERS Karine Nahon, University of Washington and the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya, karineb@uw.edu<mailto:karineb@uw.edu> (Primary Contact) Caroline Haythornthwaite, University of British Columbia, c.haythorn@ubc.ca<mailto:c.haythorn@ubc.ca> Twitter: #hicss_snc This HICSS minitrack has been ongoing since 2003 under various titles. Papers address the interrelationship between social networking and communities in all aspects of our online and offline lives. We call for papers that address research, theory, practice, and/or policy around our interlinkages via social media in support of communities of practice, inquiry, and interest for business, political, social, learning, and gaming initiatives and outcomes. The mini-track has been very successful, with around 30% acceptance rate and usually runs for a whole day (four sessions); ‘best papers’ from the minitrack have often received the ‘Best Paper in Track’ award. As started for HICSS-49, and now for HICSS-50 we would like to attract more exploratory and theoretical papers. Thus, we also encourage papers of this type. We call for papers that address social networks and communities supported and/or complemented by social media for work, learning, socializing, economic and/or political processes, and/or that address theory, design, practices, use or evaluation of such social media use. We encourage papers that address social media use that supports or complements communities in a broad sense, including communities of practice, epistemic communities, or communities of inquiry, fully virtual or hybrid online-offline communities, and geographically based community. We particularly encourage papers that: advance understanding of social network growth, formation, structure and outcomes through social media; advance understanding of the design of social media technologies and practices for effective community development and maintenance; studies of socio-technical aspects of social media that explore technology and social outcomes; exploratory and theoretical studies that suggest models and principles of social media design, use and outcomes. Examples of possible interdisciplinary topics of interest in these contexts include, but are not limited to: Social, political and/or economic impact of social media Crowds and Communities as sociological phenomenon in the digital economy Community development and community informatics Design, development, and user studies of social media Design of online crowds and/or communities of practice, inquiry or interest Online learning communities: structures, implementations, and practices Serious leisure online Organizational behavior of communities Behavior in online gaming communities Social network studies and analyses of online crowds and communities Mobile applications, services and use for and by online communities Case studies and topologies of online communities Case studies and analyses of the rise and fall of social network sites and online communities Theoretical models of online crowds and communities, social media use, etc. Models and cases of synergies and/or conflicts between offline and online worlds Critical perspectives on social media and local and/or virtual community Research methods for the study of social networking and community Exploration of future trends for social media and community Policy papers on social media and community For MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HICSS, see: http://www.hicss.org Karine Nahon/Author of Going Viral/Best Information Science Book Award and Outstanding Academic Title/eKarine.org Associate Professor/Information School at University of Washington/Government School at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya-IDC