September 2008 - change - Mailing Lists

New research group course for Fall
by Beth Kolko 12 Sep '08

12 Sep '08

New Technical Communication Research Group announcement TC 596/TC 496: Collecting and Visualizing Difficult to Access Data The purpose of this research group is to familiarize students with the processes and practical complexities involved in obtaining electronic data, both domestically and abroad, and to learn skills for visualization of social and economic data. While conducting online research, data that may initially seem public and easily obtainable may actually pose significant problems in locating. Some data, for example, may be accessible only through private corporations, hard to access portions in sites of international agencies (the UN website, for example, can be very difficult to navigate for specific data), or through contacting governments agencies directly. There is a significant challenge not just in collecting the data, but in visualizing and providing them in a format that other researchers can easily use. As part of the research group, students will put to practice skills and techniques in collecting electronic data by assisting in a project titled Investigating the Social and Economic Impact of Public Access to Information and Communication Technology (IPAI), a five-year, $7.2 million research project sponsored by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project is managed by telecentre.org in partnership with the Center for Information & Society at the University of Washington Information School. Over the last decade, governments, international development agencies, foundations, and corporations have made significant investments to increase public access to information and communication technology (ICT), particularly in developing countries. As these investments continue to grow, questions are being raised about their social and economic impact, particularly: * What are the observable social and economic impacts of public access to ICT? * What is the magnitude of these impacts and how can we measure them? * What is the relationship between costs and benefits of providing public access to ICT? The project will answer these questions using longitudinal and comparative research approaches. It will examine the impact of a range of shared, public access to ICT models, such as the provision of ICT in libraries and telecentres, as well as other models and innovations that will emerge over the next five years. The research will examine both positive and negative impacts on populations' well-being in the areas of employment and income, education, civic engagement, democracy and governmental transparency, culture and language preservation, and health, among others. To this end, it is vitally important to know what data are currently available so research is not duplicated needlessly and data can be provided in a format useful to the study. As the research focuses on developing countries, locating much of this data may be tricky. Such data may include the number of Internet caf�s in a country or the Internet literacy rate of populations. In addition, obtaining data that can help to put socio-economic indicators in perspective are also vital and equally difficult to obtain. Such data may include shape files for maps. Throughout the research group students will learn skills for obtaining difficult to locate data, gain practice in recognizing reliable data, have the chance to collaborate with researchers in a multi-country research project, and be given the opportunity to work with and analyze the data they collect. It is expected that students' work will directly contribute to and be incorporated into the IPAI project. The result will be an enhanced understanding of the kinds of issues researchers face when collecting data and how this translates into better presentation and visualization designs for displaying data and making them open and accessible. Students will be expected to carefully document on a wiki their progress throughout the project. In addition, other work will include an informal paper at the end of the quarter that summarizes the successes and failures of research processes, positive outcomes and dead-ends encountered when visiting websites and contacting sources, and any other observations. (Understanding difficulties is just as important as understanding best practices so students are encouraged to be as open and detailed as possible when discussing their progress.) In addition, students will be able to design a project that involves visualization or formatting the data they collect. If students desire, they will have the opportunity to create additional outputs that may include research reports, publications, or conference presentations. The research group will be taken as CR/NC. Students will have the option of signing up for between 2 and 5 credits. Meeting times are tba, but the group will meet at least once a week. The course is open to graduate students (TC 596) and advanced undergraduate students (TC 496) in any discipline. The research group will have an instructional team. TC instructor of record will be Beth Kolko (bkolko(a)u.washington.edu) and course instructors will be Araba Sey, Chris Rothschild, and Willem Scholten. For more information please contact Beth Kolko.

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FW: IEEE/ACM ICTs and Development '09 Conference: Funding, Paper Deadline and Submissions
by Richard Anderson 03 Sep '08

03 Sep '08

-----Original Message----- From: Kentaro Toyama [mailto:Kentaro.Toyama@microsoft.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 10:31 AM To: Kentaro Toyama Subject: RE: IEEE/ACM ICTs and Development '09 Conference: Funding, Paper Deadline and Submissions For those preparing ICTD papers, here are some unsolicited thoughts... On Writing ICTD Research Papers <http://research.microsoft.com/users/toyama/On Writing ICTD Research Papers.doc> "What makes ICTD research research, and not just reports about technology projects in rural villages? What does it mean to have economics and anthropology research side by side with computer science and electronic engineering? How can we preserve the integrity of methodologies developed by individual disciplines, while allowing for cross-fertilization among fields and a healthy respect for other disciplinary perspectives? Having served the conference in various capacities, I've asked these questions from a variety of perspectives, some of it in heated discussion with colleagues. Below is a sketch of what I arrived at for authors, particularly in terms of what constitutes good ICTD research and what goes in a good ICTD paper. It undoubtedly reflects my personal biases. Nevertheless, my hope is that the ideas below provide some guidance for those new to ICTD research or to authors submitting papers to the ICTD conference." I hope it's useful! Thanks, Kentaro ----------------------------------------------------------------- Kentaro Toyama (Microsoft Research India) Co-Founder, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) -----Original Message----- From: Richard Heeks [mailto:richard.heeks@manchester.ac.uk] Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 8:53 PM To: Richard Heeks Subject: IEEE/ACM ICTs and Development '09 Conference: Funding, Paper Deadline and Submissions Conference paper submissions for the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2009) are due by 22ND SEPTEMBER 2008. Submissions can be made via: http://ictd2009.confmaster.net/ Author instructions are available at: http://ictd2009.org/submissions.html The ICTD2009 Conference will be held 17-19 April 2009 at Carnegie-Mellon's state-of-the-art campus in Doha, Qatar (http://www.ictd2009.org) This conference will act as a focal point for new scholarship in the field of ICT and international development. Confirmed speakers include a keynote by William H. Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation. We aim to provide funding for attendance of one author of each paper accepted for oral presentation at the conference. We are working to raise additional sponsorship to cover attendance of other participants, with priority given to students and participants from developing countries. We invite submission of conference papers relating to use of ICTs for development according to the following schedule: September 22, 2008 Submissions due January 15, 2009 Final decisions sent out to authors February 20, 2009 Camera-ready papers due April 17-19, 2009 Conference Only original, unpublished papers in English will be considered, through double-blind review. Word-length limit: 8000 words. All papers will be printed in the conference proceedings, and some will be developed for a journal special issue. Do contact us if you have any queries about ICTD2009, or about submission of a paper. Richard Heeks (U. Manchester), Rahul Tongia (Carnegie-Mellon U.) Programme Committee Co-Chairs, ICTD2009

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Re: [change] IEEE/ACM ICTs and Development '09 Conference: Funding, Paper Deadline and Submissions
by Kentaro Toyama 03 Sep '08

03 Sep '08

For those preparing ICTD papers, here are some unsolicited thoughts... On Writing ICTD Research Papers <http://research.microsoft.com/users/toyama/On Writing ICTD Research Papers.doc> "What makes ICTD research research, and not just reports about technology projects in rural villages? What does it mean to have economics and anthropology research side by side with computer science and electronic engineering? How can we preserve the integrity of methodologies developed by individual disciplines, while allowing for cross-fertilization among fields and a healthy respect for other disciplinary perspectives? Having served the conference in various capacities, I've asked these questions from a variety of perspectives, some of it in heated discussion with colleagues. Below is a sketch of what I arrived at for authors, particularly in terms of what constitutes good ICTD research and what goes in a good ICTD paper. It undoubtedly reflects my personal biases. Nevertheless, my hope is that the ideas below provide some guidance for those new to ICTD research or to authors submitting papers to the ICTD conference." I hope it's useful! Thanks, Kentaro ----------------------------------------------------------------- Kentaro Toyama (Microsoft Research India) Co-Founder, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) -----Original Message----- From: Richard Heeks [mailto:richard.heeks@manchester.ac.uk] Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 8:53 PM To: Richard Heeks Subject: IEEE/ACM ICTs and Development '09 Conference: Funding, Paper Deadline and Submissions Conference paper submissions for the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2009) are due by 22ND SEPTEMBER 2008. Submissions can be made via: http://ictd2009.confmaster.net/ Author instructions are available at: http://ictd2009.org/submissions.html The ICTD2009 Conference will be held 17-19 April 2009 at Carnegie-Mellon's state-of-the-art campus in Doha, Qatar (http://www.ictd2009.org) This conference will act as a focal point for new scholarship in the field of ICT and international development. Confirmed speakers include a keynote by William H. Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation. We aim to provide funding for attendance of one author of each paper accepted for oral presentation at the conference. We are working to raise additional sponsorship to cover attendance of other participants, with priority given to students and participants from developing countries. We invite submission of conference papers relating to use of ICTs for development according to the following schedule: September 22, 2008 Submissions due January 15, 2009 Final decisions sent out to authors February 20, 2009 Camera-ready papers due April 17-19, 2009 Conference Only original, unpublished papers in English will be considered, through double-blind review. Word-length limit: 8000 words. All papers will be printed in the conference proceedings, and some will be developed for a journal special issue. Do contact us if you have any queries about ICTD2009, or about submission of a paper. Richard Heeks (U. Manchester), Rahul Tongia (Carnegie-Mellon U.) Programme Committee Co-Chairs, ICTD2009

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Fwd: gerry douglas
by yanokwa＠cs.washington.edu 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

gerry's touch screen medical record system is pretty amazing stuff. anyone interested in chatting with him or going to a talk? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Gerry Douglas from Baobab is coming to PHI conference Sept 18-19th and I'm wondering if it would make sense for him to come meet with some of the computer science folks on the 16th and 17th. I can elaborate but Gerry does some very impressive work with running low-power touchscreen electronic medical record systems in Malawi-is innovative in terms of the hardware, user interface, and also having grown a mostly Malawian team to do the technical work. if school was in session, I'd say he'd make a terrific speaker at the seminar, but thought it still might be worth an informal session if people are around.

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