Submission Recommendations

We invite summaries of published or unpublished(/able) work, provocations, and thought pieces relevant to the vast scope of human-centered computing. In coming months, we hope to cover a broad range of topics across geographic, disciplinary, socioeconomic, epistemological, and other boundaries. Below are examples of borders we hope to examine and build bridges across (this is by no means an exhaustive list):

1. Geographic — across settings that may be variously characterized as global south/north, rural/urban, “developed” or “developing”
2. Disciplinary — where computing meets health, education, agriculture, economics, public policy, entertainment, and/or other domains
3. Socioeconomic — examining constructions of class, gender, race, and religion, with a particular sensitivity towards marginal populations
4. Epistemological — touching on different ways of knowing… qualitative, quantitative, feminist/postcolonial perspectives
5. Other — using diverse technological and design approaches… you be the judge!

Writing

Our proposed length for submissions is 150 to 1,000 words, though longer posts are welcome too. We recommend that writers use simple, concise language to make the content accessible to a wider audience. We also recommend checking your work for grammatical errors and formatting, and citation of relevant sources. Photographs are welcome and encouraged, and should ideally be credited. We also encourage writers to stimulate discussion with their posts, through highlighting or discussion points, for example. A good example of a post is this one. Below are some more specific guidelines to follow while writing:

1. Tags: Posts that are paper summaries or reviews should use the “paper” tag. Thought pieces and provocations should be tagged as “story”. Some articles may be categorized as both.
2. Titles: Use generalized titles that reflect the overall theme of the paper rather than the specifics. Avoid paper titles. Do keep titles below 70 characters for better formatting.
3. Language: Avoid the use of superfluous terms that you might see in a paper such as furthermore, consequently, etcetera. Short and simple sentences are key and language does not need to be overly precise. Avoid the use of jargon. A useful exercise is thinking of how you would explain your work to a freshman. Avoid assuming that the audience is familiar with “your side of the border,” such as the geographic area or epistemological viewpoint you are writing about.
4. References: While citations are encouraged, citing too many sources may affect the readability of your post. If you find yourself citing repeatedly, take a step back. This may be an indication that you need to zoom out, focus more on your contribution, and simplify the text. Re-assess the purpose of your post and your audience. Additionally, citations themselves might be made more accessible by linking directly to a public version of the source or the source’s entry and abstract in a digital library.
5. Images: Do add illustrations and photographs as much as possible, ideally with a text caption and credits. They make posts more attractive and such articles are more likely to be featured on the homepage of the blog.

Logistics

Writers must create their own Medium accounts before they contribute. This is so that we (the editors) can grant access as contributors. Facebook or Google accounts can also be used for signing up. Once you have an account, please send us an email mentioning your intent to contribute to HCCxB, along with your Medium username, at aismail30@gatech.edu and we will invite you to be a contributor. We do not intend to police posts, but if you have questions about what you might write about, let us know. We do request you to be tolerant of our desire to copy-edit posts before publication.