The IEA Online Communities Technical Committee is accepting submissions for the IEA 2009 Congress in Beijing, China. The Track encourages symposia, panels, and demonstrations that address the role that ergonomics has to play in evaluating the efficacy of online communities, understanding mechanisms of better online work design, improving better work socialization, and ultimately to apply ergonomic principles to design better systems. In particular we are looking for proposals that address one or more the following issues: the efficacy and qualities of online communities versus face-to-face communities; the physical and psychological wellbeing related to online communities versus face-to-face communities; understanding and supporting online collaboration processes; building and developing online communities; maintaining an online social presence; the role of specialised communities online; delivery mechanisms of educational content online; and/or methodological issues in the study of online communities

We are also looking for volunteers to act as reviewers for the proposals in November 2008. If you would like to become an Online Communities Technical Committee member and you wish to help with the review, or you have any other questions, please contact me at andrew.thatcher@wits.ac.za