Success for ECSCW 2007 in Limerick

Prof. Liam Bannon, Director of the IDC, chaired the 10th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW 2007), which took place at the Hilton hotel in Limerick City last week. The conference was generously sponsored by Science Foundation Ireland, IBM, Microsoft Research, Limerick Travel and Limerick City Council, with support and resources from the University of Limerick.



Many other IDC members were involved in the planning and management of the event, which saw over 150 participants from all over the world converge on Limerick to attend the Conference. ECSCW 2007 featured 10 workshops, 3 masterclasses and a Doctoral Colloquium over two days; and a single-track plenary 3 days that have included presentations of 23 research papers, two panels, posters and demo exhibitions and two invited keynote speakers.



IDC members co-organised and participated in a number of workshops, including "The Challenges of Collaborative Work in Global Software Development" (Gabriela Avram, Liam Bannon, Anders Sigfridsson, Daniel Sullivan, Anne Sheehan) and "Beyond Mobility: Studying Nomadic Work" (Luigina Ciolfi).






The Student Volunteers were co-ordinated by IDC members Michael Cooke and Anders Sigfridsson, with the support of Emanuela Mazzone (University of Central Lancashire), formerly a visiting student at the IDC.
Annette Aboulafia served as demo chair and coordinated the demo exhibition.



The conference delegates were welcomed by Prof. Vincent Cunnane, UL Vice-President Research, who officially opened ECSCW 2007, and greeted by the Mayor of Limerick, Cllr. Ger Fahy, who hosted a reception at City Hall.



Other social events included the conference opening reception at the Georgian House, and the conference banquet at Dromoland Castle.
The final event of the conference also featured a UL contribution, as Prof. Micheal O'Suilleabhain, director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, delivered ECSCW 2007 final keynote, "What makes a traditional Irish session work", joined on stage by colleagues Niall Keegan and Sandra Joyce.



The next ECSCW Conference will take place in Vienna, Austria, in September 2009.