AfriCHI’16 recognises that people express and share experiences, knowledge and ideas about technology in many ways that written text cannot adequately portray. Thus, we use the Kiswahili word for a friendly conversation to describe Gumzo – New dialogues for HCI.
Gumzo showcases original, diverse multimedia productions and oral performances. The creators or performers in Gumzo submit, for review, an audio, video or any other media file. Gumzo welcomes all languages used in Africa but requires a brief description and motivation in English when submitted for review and some explanation in English when presented at the conference.
Audio, video and other multimedia files submitted to Gumzo will be archived in the Internet Archive, which accepts a wide range of media file formats, and is openly licensed (Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike). This enables AfriCHI’16 to contribute to increasing the amount of African content available publicly.
Media creators and/or their collaborators, such as practitioners in industry, creative and/or grassroot collectives and scholars, can also submit pictorial and/or written Abstracts, Papers and Notes for publication in the written conference proceedings. These written forms must link to their multimedia submissions and contribute to the practice or study of HCI.
Deadline for all Gumzo submissions: Extended to Wednesday 10 February 2016
Notification of outcome of Round 1 review for papers, notes and pictorials: Wednesday 30 March 2016
Deadline for eligible Papers, Notes and Pictorials to Round 2 review: Wednesday 27 April 2016
Notification of conditional acceptance for all Gumzo submissions: Wednesday 8 June 2016
Camera-ready final deadline: Wednesday 13 July 2016
Objectives
Gumzo at AfriCHI’16 aims to advance HCI by engaging design practice and scholarship with diverse voices and local or broader creativity, challenging dominant perspectives and raising critical issues about technology, society and participation in technology production. In Gumzo sessions, storytellers, artists, performers and film-makers (and/or designers or researchers who collaborate with them) present original works, ideas and insights that relate technology and Africa. We encourage submissions in languages used in Africa other than English, if accompanied by some explanation in English or English subtitles. Works can include oral and/or visual accounts of everyday experiences or interesting phenomena, oral narrations, musical performances, documentaries or long-form feature journalism. There are many examples, such as a traditional orature in radio for health education, slam poetry on the politics of making, selling and disposing of mobile phones, a designer using photos to communicate with research participants, a documentary-maker explaining the research behind their creative work, to suggest just a few.
Gumzo sessions will be organised as dialogues that both showcase diverse multimedia and multilingual projects and foster exchange between a range of voices and scholarly perspectives. For each presentation accepted for AfriCHI’16, we anticipate a 5-min performance or media presentation, followed by 15-min oral explanation, analysis or account and 10-minutes discussion involving the audience. Thus, there is considerable flexibility in submitting and presenting. However, importantly, Gumzo is not a platform for entertainment acts, unexplained research data, such as videos of interviews or promotional genres, such as advertising videos.
Submission
We encourage submissions that use visual and audio forms strategically and are of a high quality. Although our primary criteria for review will not be the technical or aesthetic quality, the quality of the submission should not adversely affect the ability of people to access and appreciate its content.
There are several different ways to submit to Gumzo. All aim to bridge between works presented/performed and HCI design, research or practice; and, all involve two steps. Step 1 uploads original audio/video/other media files to the Internet Archive; and, Step 2. registers your submission with the online reviewing system, with a brief outline in English. The steps are described in detail in the sections below.
A third optional step enables creators of audio/video/other media files (and/or their collaborators) to submit, if they wish, either a (i) a Gumzo pictorial abstract or (ii) or a Gumzo Paper or Gumzo Note for publication in the print-oriented proceedings and archive. A Gumzo Pictorial is a structured graphic and textual description of the work. A Gumzo Paper or Note uses the audio/video/other media as a figure to illustrate the topic or argument addressed in the Paper/Note. Please read the instructions for submitting both below. If you would like help to produce a Gumzo Pictorial, Paper or Note in English to accompany your submission, please read the collaboration options and contact us early.
Step 1. Submitting audio/video/other media files
All Gumzo submissions must include media files that are archived via the Internet Archive. The content of these files should present an issue, idea or experience that relates to technology and Africa. These media can be one of the following forms :
Video or audio files of a minimum five minutes in duration. Files can be shortened versions of longer works (e.g. part of a radio broadcast or feature-length documentary). It can be in any language used in Africa and may include, but is not limited to:
- Spoken, body or musical performances
- Spoken and/or visual dialogue between researchers or designers and study participants, artists, performers and documentary-makers
- A spoken and/or visual commentary
- Documentary films
- Digital stories, integrating audio narratives/performances with images and/or video
- Animations
OR
High resolution image greater than 5 Megapixels in size. This can be a photograph, artwork, poster, or large format visualisation.
All audio/video/other media files uploaded to the Internet Archive must conform to AfriCHI guidelines regarding formats, ethics and copyright. All media will be published under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike licensing on the Internet Archive.
It is the responsibility of all people submitting to the Gumzo track to (i) ensure that their submission complies with appropriate ethical practices in publishing a recording of someone else’s voice or their visual image; and gain (ii) permissions for Creative Commons licensing and releases. Please do not upload any material containing other person(s) or their work without their permission.
Let us know if you need any assistance. Before you can upload your media you need to register on the Internet Archive site (or get a ‘virtual library card’).
While your file is uploading you will need to provide metadata about the media.
In the ‘License’ field make sure that you select Creative Commons and click on Allow Remixing and Require Share-Alike. To preserve your anonymity it is very important that you do NOT provide your name in the metadata. Please use a nickname instead, we will ask you to provide your real name later (that is, you edit the Internet Archive metadata once you are accepted). Also check that the filename of the media you uploaded does not reveal your name. Unfortunately identifiable submissions cannot be accepted for Papers, Notes or Pictorials.
Step 2. Submitting brief outlines
After uploading your media files you must register your submission using the online submission system. All submissions to Gumzo must include both: (i) links to the relevant files in the Internet Archive; and, (ii) brief written outlines in English of no more than 250 words that describes how your performance or the creation you have uploaded will be valuable to AfriCHI.
If your uploaded media includes languages other than English your outline must both (1) briefly explain the content in English; and, (2) indicate how you will explain the work at the conference. If accepted, this short outline will be included in the conference programme but will not be published in the written proceedings, which is reserved for Papers, Notes, and Pictorials. If you wish to submit only your media and this short outline, please be sure you check-off the appropriate options in the submission system.
Step 3. Submitting Gumzo Pictorials, Paper or Notes
If they wish, the creators of audio/video/other media files and/or their collaborators can also submit either a Gumzo pictorial abstract, Paper or Note for publication in the print-oriented proceedings and archive.
Pictorials, Notes and Papers are submitted as anonymised PDFs that contain hyperlinks to audio/video/other media files uploaded to the Internet Archive. That is, the files uploaded to the Internet Archive enable authors to link their Pictorial, Paper or Note to an unusually large image or video/audio figures. Gumzo Pictorials is a version of the Extended Abstract form that contains several pages of visual figures. Gumzo Papers and Gumzo Notes, follow the general guidelines for AfriCHI Papers and Notes but the differ in that multimedia “figures” are integral to the argument.
Gumzo Pictorials
The Gumzo Pictorial format aims to enable creators of uploaded media files and/or their collaborators to describe the content of their media files in graphically rich ways. Pictorials should be formatted as Extended Abstracts that either use the regular MS Word template Extended Abstract or the Adobe InDesign format (example pdf). They should not exceed 4 pages including references, and should include:
Title, author(s) and their affiliation(s) (leave blank for blind review) on the first page
A written abstract of no more than 100 words succinctly describing the background and context of the pictorial and its contribution to AfriCHI.
Sketches, annotated images, illustrations, diagrams or field notes to enrich describing the project
A link to the video/audio/other multimedia file uploaded to the Internet Archive in Step 1.
Gumzo Papers and Notes
Creators of uploaded video/audio and their collaborators can also submit a more detailed explication, reflection or analysis of the work for publication in the written proceedings and associated archive. We intend Gumzo Papers and Notes to enable scholars to explain their projects, and document dialogue with research/design participants, artists, performers or documentary-makers about broadly social dimensions of technology in relation to Africa. The dialogue may also focus on HCI-related topics or research, as reflected in AfriCHI’s themes. Thus, these specific formats aim to:
Show how rigorous scholarly knowledge can develop from multimodal and multilingual foundations
Engage in global and local public debates
Promote awareness of key issues in producing and critiquing digital technologies and HCI research in African contexts, such as transnational interactions or power-relations amongst the wide range of communities involved.
Gumzo Papers and Notes are original, double-blind, peer-reviewed, written accounts framed in relation to AfriCHI’s topics of interest. They are submitted as anonymised PDFs according to the general guidelines for AfriCHI Papers and Notes, and differ only in that multimedia “figures” are integral to the argument in Gumzo Papers and Notes. They should be submitted in AfriCHI formats for Papers and Notes. Papers are 10 pages or less, excluding any references and should have a minimum of 20 references. Notes are 4 pages or less, excluding references and references should be a minimum of 10. Pages before the last page contain:
Title – on the first page, with author(s) and their affiliation(s) are kept blank until the camera-ready final)
A written abstract of no more than 150 words – on the first page
All the body text, appendices and references, if references are longer than a page
Multiple figures, see below
You must set aside at least two pages of your Paper or Note for figures. Figures can be still photographs or other images but they do not have to be visual. Figures can include links to the media you uploaded to the Internet Archive, such as oral performances, audio, artwork or documentary film as well as links to other material, such as a website, app, video accompanying your Paper or Note. Please bear in mind requirements for anonymity, explained above.
The figures and the body text of the Paper or Note should communicate the gist of the content of all media so that the claim or argument of the Paper or Note makes sense even if the links to multimedia are inaccessible to readers.
Please conform to AfriCHI’s ethics and copyright requirements and to the media formats and length of audio or video clips and contact the Gumzo chair if you need any assistance at gumzo at africhi dot net.
Review & Selection
We will use non-anonymous juried selection for submissions of audio/video/other media files that do not include a Pictorial, Paper or Note. This is because language and communication styles often preclude anonymity and reviewing may require interactive conversations between creators/performers and experts. Submissions will be assessed according to the originality and quality of presentation and value, relevance and importance of the contribution to African contexts AND to HCI. If you would like help to set up your work at AfriCHI’16 please read the section about collaboration options and contact us early.
Gumzo Pictorials, Papers and Notes will be double-blind anonymous reviewed. Each submission will be carefully reviewed by three independent reviewers, one of whom may have specialized expertise such as linguistic knowledge, documentary-making, ethnography, or participatory design. We follow the two-round review process used in AfriCHI Papers and Notes. Submissions will be assessed according to the: quality of presentation, value and relevance to African contexts or perspectives AND to HCI, coherence and integrity of multimedia and scholarly components, originality and importance of the contribution.