The 800th anniversary of Magna Carta is the inspiration for this year’s British Human Computer Interaction Conference (HCI 2015), hosted by the University of Lincoln, UK.
HCI 2015, which takes place from 13th-17th July, will focus on our ever-evolving digital society and the role interactive technology plays in mediating and communicating political views. A total of 220 delegates from 18 countries will be in attendance.
Organised by Lincoln’s Social Computing (LiSC) research centre, the conference is inspired by the anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215, an event viewed as an international cornerstone of liberty and one that challenged society’s relationship with authority
Director of LiSC, Professor Shaun Lawson said: “Lincoln is home to one of only four surviving copies of Magna Carta and will take a major role in the 800th anniversary celebrations coinciding with our hosting of HCI 2015. The theme reflects the increasing public consciousness of how interactive technologies fundamentally affect our privacy, rights, and relationships with authority, government and commerce.
“This conference will set the agenda in the UK and internationally around the design of future interactive digital systems. The research community used to be interested in the use and design of a device, but now it’s more about the experience and the way digital technology affects our lives, including our political and democratic lives.”
The keynote speakers, Chris Csikszentmihalyi, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, will discuss how Magna Carta is more relevant than ever in an age where interactive digital technology constantly shapes our lives and our relationships with each other, as well as those in authority.
Assange, for instance, has recently spoken about the Wikileaks’ claim that “top secret intelligence reports and technical documents” from the US National Security Agency (NSA) state it spied on communications by successive French Presidents from 2006-12.