Internet at Work and Play

The Internet at Work and Play track examines how the Internet shapes individuals, groups, organizations, and societies—spanning markets, social networks, and core technical challenges such as security, open source, and cloud computing. Since its inception in 1997, the track has hosted more than 90 minitracks and nearly 2,000 papers, with enduring themes including AI-based assistants, crowd platforms, esports, digital supply chains, security and privacy, and humancomputer interaction. This year, the track includes 18 minitracks. Across these minitracks, we received 142 submissions and accepted 71, resulting in a 50% acceptance rate.

Achieving Digital Transformation. This minitrack examines how organizations navigate digital transformation (DT) across strategy, identity, business models, and capabilities. It emphasizes twin transformation linking DT with sustainability, rethinking technology choices and work-life balance. Papers may address challenges, metrics, maturity models, or real-world cases from any sector.

AI Ecosystems: Assistants, Agents, and Platforms. AI ecosystems integrate assistants, agents, and generative models into collaborative networks that exceed singlesystem capabilities. This minitrack explores architectures, business models, multimodal interactions, agentic AI, and XR integration. It welcomes studies on trust, governance, ethics, and impacts across industries such as healthcare, finance, and education.

AI, Emotions, Empathy, and Explainability. This minitrack investigates AI’s emerging role in emotional and empathic interactions, from detection to response. It examines links between explainability and human emotions like trust or satisfaction. Topics include business impacts, novel human-AI theories, ethical risks, and algorithmic advances in emotion prediction.

Circular Industrial Ecosystems: Collaborative Technologies Enabling Transparency, Resilience, and Innovation. Circular ecosystems use digital twins, XR, AI, and secure data infrastructures to enhance transparency and resource efficiency in manufacturing and logistics. This minitrack studies data sovereignty, open-source models, decentralized technologies, and sustainability. It invites conceptual, empirical, and prototype-driven research.

Crowd-Based Ecosystems: Platforms, Participation,and Policy. This minitrack analyzes design, innovation, and governance of crowdfunding, gig, and community platforms. It highlights AI integration, algorithmic fairness, social influence, and sustainability. Recent work explores equity, herding, and decentralized systems. Best papers may be fasttracked to Data and Information Management.

Data Ecosystems: Design, Innovation, and Impacts. Data ecosystems enable multi-stakeholder sharing for mutual value, unlike traditional networks. This minitrack probes classifications, generative AI in data sharing, business models, and governance. It addresses domain-specific traits, sovereignty, and societal challenges like the UN SDGs.

Digital Supply Chains: Technologies, Resilience and Sustainability. Digital tools such as IoT, AI, digital twins, and blockchain build agile, transparent, and circular supply chains. This minitrack covers visibility, forecasting, human-machine collaboration, and federated data strategies. It also examines barriers, cybersecurity, and legal governance. Best papers may be fast-tracked to Electronic Markets.

Esports. Esports has evolved into a multi-billiondollar industry blending gaming, entertainment, and traditional sports. This minitrack welcomes all methodologies to study business models, cognition, AI analytics, law, sociology, and media dynamics. It explores VR spectator experiences, gender gaps, and global reach. Accepted research may be fast-tracked to a special issue of the Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports.

Generative AI for Organizational, Societal, and Emotional Relationships and Partnerships. Generative AI reshapes collaboration, partner selection, and human relationships from workplace to personal spheres. This minitrack studies trust, knowledge sharing, health impacts, and cognitive architectures for emotional intelligence. It spans organizational, societal, and neuro-AI perspectives.

Governing the Digital Commons. Digital commons emerge from co-produced data and knowledge in platforms like Wikipedia or MTurk. This minitrack applies polycentric governance and institutional frameworks to participation, access, and misuse dilemmas. Topics include misinformation, peer production, and privacy norms.

Hospitality and Tourism in a Global Digital Economy – New Models, Services, and Performance. Digital disruption transforms hospitality and tourism amid labor shortages, sustainability debates, and AI adoption. This minitrack seeks socio-technical analyses of business models, platforms, metaverse tourism, and resilience. It covers macro to micro levels and crisis recovery.

Human-Computer Interaction. This minitrack explores usability, trust, and AI-driven interfaces across ecosystems. Topics range from generative AI prompt design and mobile HCI to neurophysiological tools and ethical nudging. Accepted papers may fasttracked to AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction.

Human-Like Conversational Agents: Chatbots, Digital Humans, and Virtual Influencers. Digital humans advance via GANs, affective computing, and multimodal interaction. This minitrack studies user responses, biases, organizational deployment, and ethical implications in e-commerce and social media. It includes virtual influencers and philosophical questions.

ICTs and AI: Adoption, Diffusion, and Societal Impacts. This minitrack tracks how ICTs and AI—including blockchain, IoT, and generative models— spread across households, firms, and societies. It examines inclusion, environmental impact, resistance, policy, and digital divides. Diverse methods and global comparisons are encouraged.

Information Systems in the Regulatory Landscape. IS and regulation intersect in privacy, fairness, and accountability under frameworks like the EU AI Act or GDPR. This minitrack studies compliance-bydesign, innovation trade-offs, and IS influence on law. It welcomes interdisciplinary and comparative analyses.

IS Security and Privacy. Behavioral research targets human-centric risks from insider accidents to external attacks. This minitrack covers compliance, generative AI in defense or offense, neurosecurity, and IoT privacy. Selected papers may fast-tracked to the Journal of Intellectual Capital. Selected papers may fast-tracked to the Journal of Intellectual Capital.

Metaverse for Work and Play. This minitrack examines the metaverse as a converged space for professional collaboration, social interaction, and immersive entertainment. It explores governance, economic models, identity, and behavioral dynamics in virtual environments. Topics include dark/bright side trade-offs, platform interoperability, and societal implications of persistent digital worlds. Selected papers may fast-tracked to the Journal of Intellectual Capital.

Personalization and Consumer Behavior in Digital Marketing. Effective digital marketing leverages personalization, sustainability, and generative design to drive engagement and loyalty. This minitrack examines impulsive buying, trust-building, and AI applications in B2B/B2C contexts. Theoretical, empirical, and bibliometric approaches are invited.

Socio-Economic Impacts of AI and Algorithmic Systems. AI and ML reshape jobs, markets, and decision-making via automation and personalization. This minitrack probes fairness, explainability, humanalgorithm interaction, and sector applications (fintech, healthcare). High-quality papers may be fast-tracked to Information Technology and Management.

Alan R. Dennis
Indiana University
ardennis@iu.edu

Joseph S. Valacich
University of Arizona
valacich@arizona.edu