The MD Journal second issue aims to reflect on the connectivity as a design focus in the contemporary culture by bridging various stimuli coming from design, architecture and networks sciences. This issue try to emphasise emerging paths and scenarios that are shaping a wider connectivity.
Adopting the synapses’ concept – often used to indicate the flow among neurons stimuli – we are particularly interested in underpinning those studies and projects that are transforming the ways we design today, merging more and more communication, interaction and technology contexts.
The field of Connectivity has been originally practiced for years into the human-machines interaction discipline in response to an increased miniaturization of data transmission technologies. This progression are now radically changing the configuration of the communication and interactions between objects and people as well as possible design concepts and related practices.
Moving from the classical Machine to Machine (m2m) ground, the Internet of Things (IoT) design field is becoming a very wide influential phenomena. Nowadays, this evolution lacks the constructive energy between conceptual, theoretical and methodological approaches that we really need to increase the awareness of such connectivity development and on what this overall body of design knowledge offers.
At the same time, the increasingly growing of mobile pervasive devices and wearable technology
 has opened innovative ways to design everyday objects.
This call invites diverse communities of theorists and practitioners. We welcome contributions from a range of emphasis: scientific papers, critical review, design methodologies, conceptual and experimental approaches, case studies, prototypes and pilot projects. Areas of interventions could include small and large design sizes.
Specifically, with this issue, we hope to explore multidisciplinary approaches across two sides: theoretical and materials. On one side we aims to extend the IoT field of study from the general approach to the more scientific one, bridging research areas on digital objects, services and environments, user-centered design, smart objects, social platforms and networked systems.

On the other side we encourage contributions related to cutting-edge materials that can be handled by designers to enhance the infrastructure for connecting smart systems and networks.
The extensive use of hardware, data transmission, interactive surfaces, displays, power cells and other high-tech design elements is complex and increasingly limited to private solutions. While those productions are endowed with specific knowledge, open-source projects permit to create interactive prototypes that allow to be tested empowering various design fields.
This timely discourse on open and closed tools as design modality, along to the discussion on the interoperability among objects and service platforms, requires a perspective in which researchers and designers cooperate for a long-term co-design conversation.
For this MD Journal call, we seek to engage the ongoing design changes on issues of connectivity between objects and environments at different size levels and to promote new ideas on a broad user experience across social interactions and networked systems.
Possible topics of exploration include, but are not limited to:
- Ecosystems of networked objects;
- Networked interfaces and new materials for smart buildings;
- Wearable technology;
- Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environment;
- Energy management and networked systems;
- Biohacking, healthcare and wellbeing;
- Personal informatics and quantified self;
- Open source and open hardware;
- Open data and infoviz systems;
- Interactive experiences in smart exhibition and cultural heritage;
- Transportation and public spaces;
- Privacy, security and ethics in a connected world;
- Social platforms for data sharing.



Announcement and Submission Instructions:
http://www.materialdesign.it/en/journal-md/sinapsi_61.htm

Important dates:
Abstract submission September 01, 2016
Notification of Abstract Review Results September 06, 2016
Submission paper October 30, 2016
Notification of Peer Review Results November 20, 2016
Submission of final version December 10, 2016
Publication  December 2016

#2 Issue Editors:
Vanessa De Luca: University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland
Michele Zannoni: Università della Repubblica di San Marino

Publishing process
Researches are invited to send to the Scientific Section of the MD Journal an abstract of 2000 maximum 4000 characters (including spaces), written in Italian (only foreign authors may write in English), by 1st September 2016.
The abstract, written in a clear, succinct manner, must be pertinent to the topic of the Call, set forth the objectives and purposes of the paper and be accompanied by keywords that highlight the project’s main points.
Abstracts must be sent to materialdesign@unife.it.
Authors will receive a notification of acceptance by 06 September 2016.
After that, authors must send the articles (including all documentation, see link below), by 30 October 2016, to the same email address: materialdesign@unife.it
Following the review by peer referees, comments will be notified to authors by 20 November 2016 and they will have to send the final version of the article to materialdesign@unife.it, by 10 December 2016.
The e-version of the open-class MD Journal 12/2016 is free and will be published on December 2016.
The magazine will also be printed and sent to the authors and to the main national libraries.

Nature and style of MD Journal scientific articles.
Please be reminded that scientific articles must comply with the following:
- definition and development of research topics;
- peer to peer argumentative intersubjective structure and style
- introduce connections and comparisons with established knowledge
- explicit references (notes, bibliography, sources).

Please refer to http://www.materialdesign.it/it/journal-md//_68.htm
Articles must be written in Italian; only foreign authors may write in English.
Authors must comply with the Editorial Rules.
Please refer to http://www.materialdesign.it/it/journal-md//_61.htm