Open Road 2008 Conference:
Multilingualism and the Information Society
Melbourne, Australia
15-16 May 2008
http://www.openroad.net.au/conferences/2008/
The Conference Committee would like to extend a warm invitation to attend Open Road Conference 2008: Multilingualism and the Information Society, the fourth Open Road Conference.
The Open Road Conference is a unique, biennial conference in Australia that provides an important forum to discuss and showcase innovative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) developments in the area of multilingualism.
The conference features international and Australian keynote speakers, plenary and concurrent sessions in the eve of the World Information Society Day celebrated worldwide on May the 17th.
In an era when the Internet and the language of the Internet have an increasing impact on the way one accesses information and engages with government, business and each other, the conference will explore, discuss and showcase the use of ICT in:
- linguistic and cultural development;
- delivering information to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities;
- improving online communication with CALD communities; and
- developing and promoting multilingual and multicultural societies.
The conference acknowledges that language is the key channel for communicating knowledge and traditions and consequently, being able to use one’s mother language on global information networks such as the Internet is important.
Consistent with the United Nation’s declaration of 2008 as the International Year of Languages, the conference also reflects on the increasing importance of the issue of worldwide multilingualism online and the broader issues affecting migrant communities.
Open Road 2008 is a strategic conference for sectors such as government, libraries, education and community and attracts a broad range of decision makers, practitioners and end receivers.
Keynote speakers
- From broadcasting to participation media: minority language transmission and teaching
Assoc. Prof. Robert Debski (The University of Melbourne) - The Internet as a multilingual space:
linguistic diversity and the democratisation of communication
Prof. Tony Liddicoat (University of South Australia) - New Times, World Kids, Third Space: ICT, multiliteracies and multilingualism
Prof. Joseph Lo Bianco (The University of Melbourne) - Web internationalization
Richard Ishida (W3C)
Papers
- Case studies - Reaching CALD Communities: Showcasing ICT & Multimedia Projects
presented by Maria Dimopoulos - Communicating with Victoria's emerging African language
communities: issues and responses
Helen Borland and Charles Mphande (Victoria University) - A cross-cultural and bilingual experience in LIS
education - a case study
Dr. Robert Sandusky, Dr. Edwin Cortez and Simon Aristeguieta (University of Tennessee, USA) - Digital competence and the language issues in South African classrooms
Greta Gudmundsdottir (University of Oslo) - Digital stories: connecting to communities in L1
Terry Taylor (AMES) - eLearning resources to engage language learners
Jaclyn Curnow (Mill Park Secondary College) - Engaging the language learner in a multicultural world
Julie Duncan and Jacqueline Louise Baer (Open High School) - Language enablement
Andrew Cunningham (State Library of Victoria), Don Osborn (Bisharat Ltd.) and Wunna Ko Ko - Maintaining social networks: the use of ICTs by Chinese and Italian migrants in Melbourne
Tom Denison and Graeme Johanson - Mediated connectedness: practices and
strategies of Russian speaking migrants to Melbourne
Helen Borland (Victoria University) - Modern Ways for Ancient Words
Daryn McKenny - Multicultural information dynamics: the Internet and the end of lingua franca illiteracy
Paul L. Hover (Virginia Tech) and Jun Lu (American University) - The use of Japanese in computer-mediated communication by Japanese-speaking Melbournians: implications for language maintenance
Hiroki Kurihara (Elwood College) - Vicnet - Monash University Translation and Technology Project
Rika Shimo-Malmberg (Monash University) and Andrew Cunningham (State Library of Victoria)