Call for papers

Call for papers

Chatbots have substantial potential for social good. Examples include chatbots in support of public health and wellbeing, chatbots for educational support, and chatbots to strengthen community building. But this potential is not yet realized.

Researchers and practitioners with an interest in chatbot research and design is invited to a full day workshop, arranged in conjunction with INTERACT 2019, Paphos, Cyprus. Together we will explore how chatbots may be designed and developed for social good, and the potential implications of such a perspective

Participants are selected on the basis of submitted position papers (3-6 pages, Springer LNCS format). Position papers should address one or more of the workshop topics.

Position paper submission deadline (extended): May 27

Notification on acceptance: June 7

Workshop: September 3

Each submission will be peer-reviewed by three workshop organizers Accepted position papers are published in the official adjunct conference proceedings.

Submission: Email your submission to the workshop organizers on the following address asbjorn.folstad@sintef.no

Workshop motivation

Over the last few years there has been a marked increase in the interest in chatbots, that is, conversational user interfaces to data and services. This increase is motivated by technological opportunity and commercial concern. Chatbots are seen as vehicles for strong engagements between service providers and users, and chatbots for customer service are seen as a means towards cost-effective service provision.

This technology- and business-centric approach to chatbots may have come at the expense of advancing chatbots in response to real user needs and desires. Put bluntly, one might argue that current chatbots too often are designed to be good for business, not to improve the lives of people. This is potentially critical, as it is challenging to convince users to take up chatbots if they do not see them as substantial improvements in their current digital environment.

In this workshop, we pursue an alternative approach to chatbot design and development. An approach where chatbots are seen as holding a potential for beneficial social impact. Instead of asking how chatbots should be designed and developed to strengthen business, we aim to facilitate reflections on how chatbots can be used to improve the lives of individuals and society at large.

Chatbots for social good is a promising perspective which, first of all, may support new insights and ideas into how chatbots may make life better for people. Furthermore, novel chatbot services, developed with the best interest of people and society at heart, may be just what is needed to realize a mass market adoption of this technology.

Key topics

• Chatbots for social good? Why and how can chatbots be developed with the aim of beneficial social impact? And how should researchers and practitioners take responsibility for the social impact of technology interventions?
• Salient examples. Which are the good examples of chatbots for social good? How can they guide future practice?
• Future opportunities. How can the perspective of social good guide future technology and business development? How can the perspective of chatbots for social good help realize a broader uptake of chatbots?
• Challenges. How to identify unwanted and unintended consequences in social good initiatives? How to distinguish chatbots for social good on the basis of the underlying motivations and intentions as well as anticipated outcomes?
• Changing practice. How to change chatbot design and development practice to reflect a concern for beneficial social impact? How to embed chatbots for social good in business and tech industry?

Expected outcomes

The workshop outcomes will be proposed actions for industry and research priorities. These will be written up by the workshop organizers, in collaboration with volunteer workshop participants, and made available to a broader audience through a publication targeting chatbot researchers and practitioners. The minimum version will be a presentation available through the workshop webpage. However, we also hope to be able to communicate key findings through a future academic publication and/or a press article.

Organizers

• Asbjørn Følstad (SINTEF)
• Effie L.-C. Law (Leicester University)
• Tom Feltwell (Northumbria University)
• Ewa Luger (University of Edinburgh)
• Petter Bae Brandtzaeg (SINTEF)