January 2009 - change - Mailing Lists

Fwd: laptop vs mobile
by joe michiels 29 Jan '09

29 Jan '09

An interesting discussion thread for Change folks, including three articles polarizing the laptops vs. mobile phones discussion. Joe Michiels jmich(a)u.washington.edu Foster School of Business, Class of 2010 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Stephane Boyera <boyera(a)w3.org> Date: Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 1:40 AM Subject: laptop vs mobile To: public-mw4d(a)w3.org Dear All, In case some of you missed it, you would surely be interested in an article in the guardian about laptop vs mobile as the best way to offer development-oriented services: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/13/one-laptop-per-child-cory-… This article triggered some reactions in the community. I encourage the reading of http://manypossibilities.net/2009/01/mobiles-versus-laptops/ and http://whiteafrican.com/2009/01/26/africa-the-mobiles-vs-pcs-debate/ which are two great posts. Best Stephane -- Stephane Boyera stephane(a)w3.org W3C +33 (0) 5 61 86 13 08 BP 93 fax: +33 (0) 4 92 38 78 22 F-06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

3 2

CSE 590f, Jan 28, Joyojeet Pal
by Richard Anderson 25 Jan '09

25 Jan '09

Joyojeet will be talking in this week's seminar: CSE 590f Computing and the Developing World Wednesday, January 28, 4pm, CSE 403 RuralScope: An Repository for Tracking Rural Disbursements Joyojeet Pal UW CIS and UW CSE Concerns among development professionals about designing robust information systems to enable efficient disbursement of development funds are seen in the rising interest in e-governance projects in various parts of the developing world. The National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) Scheme in India has been one of the largest rural unemployment benefits schemes in the world, both in economic terms and in complexity of implementation. The scheme currently offers payments to over 31.1 million households throughout the country. Within the first few years of its implementation, a number of allegations of irregularity in both the implementation and disbursement. The information-related problems posed by the NREG implementation mirror issues faced by several similar rural development projects around the world that involve small disbursements to large numbers of recipients. While a large amount of data exists both on the outlay and expenditure of disbursements as well as past monitoring, poor organization of the data hampers accurate evaluation of the progress and impact of the scheme. RuralScope is an initiative to create an efficient and searchable system of data, first for use by field monitors, and second for use by researchers studying the impact of such programs. Through an annotatable online feature, RuralScope also aims at aggregating various sources of knowledge about the NREG scheme, potentially offering a model for similar development projects where access to information on users is hard to reach. Bio: Joyojeet Pal is a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Information and Society at the School of Information, University of Washington. His research is broadly on technology and economic development. His recent work has focused on children's shared use of technology in education.

1 0

Talk Announcement, Wed, Jan 21, 4pm, CSE 403
by Richard Anderson 20 Jan '09

20 Jan '09

Ali Mokdad from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation will be speaking tomorrow in the computing and the developing world seminar. There are tremendous challenges in conducting accurate public health surveys in the developing world - Ali will be talking about these in the context of technology change. This is a great opportunity to learn more about a very important domain, where there are many open computing and technology problems. CSE 590f, Wednesday, January 21, 4:00-4:50 pm, CSE 403. Public Health Surveillance in a Changing Telecommunication Environment. Dr. Ali Mokdad, IHME and UW The rapid changes in telecommunication technology has changed public health surveillance. For example, response rates for most random digit dial (RDD) telephone surveys declined precipitously, leaving researchers to question the validity and reliability of these data. The growth in telemarketing efforts, increased use of cellular telephones, advancements in caller-identification and call-screening technology, and the advent of "do not call" lists have helped to accelerate this drop in surveys participation. As a result, several large surveillance system are using a "multi mode" approach to data collection by administering their surveys via the web, mail, cellular telephone, and landline telephone. The presentation will provide an overview of the challenges and solutions. Dr. Mokdad recently joined the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The main mission of IHME is to monitor global health conditions and health systems, as well as evaluate interventions, initiatives, and reforms. This will provide high quality and timely information on health so that policymakers, researchers, donors, practitioners, local decision-makers, and others can better allocate limited resources to achieve optimal results.

1 0

programmer for ghana health project
by Yaw Anokwa 20 Jan '09

20 Jan '09

The Ghana Health Information Systems Development (GHISD) project seeks to hire a computer scientist who will be posted in the Dangbe West District of Ghana. GHISD will test whether the adaptation of existing mobile phone technology can help address these problems by significantly easing information capture for community-based health care workers and providing a mechanism for communication between front-line health care workers and their supervisors. This is a project in partnership with Columbia, Grameen and the Ghana Health Service and sounds like it'd be pretty fun. I've attached the job description with all the contact information. Please forward as necessary.

1 0

tapan parikh in esquire
by Yaw Anokwa 20 Jan '09

20 Jan '09

former uw grad student and change member, tapan parikh, has been featured in esquire. http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2008/third-world-cell-ph… has the story.

1 0

Fwd: CommCare press
by Yaw Anokwa 15 Jan '09

15 Jan '09

pretty exciting stuff from cse grad student (and change founder) brian derenzi. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Brian DeRenzi <bderenzi(a)gmail.com> For those who haven't seen it, CommCare has had some press lately: http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/01/05/new-mobile-phone-applications-he… http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/26/technology/mobile_health.fortune/?postversi… They even ran the story in an English speaking newspaper here in Tanzania!

1 0

CSE 590f Seminar, Wed, January 21, Ali Mokdad, IHME
by Richard Anderson 15 Jan '09

15 Jan '09

Ali Mokdad from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation will be speaking next week in the computing and the developing world seminar. There are tremendous challenges in conducting accurate public health surveys in the developing world - Ali will be talking about these in the context of technology change. This is a great opportunity to learn more about a very important domain, where there are many open computing and technology problems. CSE 590f, Wednesday, January 21, 4:00-4:50 pm, CSE 403. Public Health Surveillance in a Changing Telecommunication Environment. Dr. Ali Mokdad, IHME and UW The rapid changes in telecommunication technology has changed public health surveillance. For example, response rates for most random digit dial (RDD) telephone surveys declined precipitously, leaving researchers to question the validity and reliability of these data. The growth in telemarketing efforts, increased use of cellular telephones, advancements in caller-identification and call-screening technology, and the advent of "do not call" lists have helped to accelerate this drop in surveys participation. As a result, several large surveillance system are using a "multi mode" approach to data collection by administering their surveys via the web, mail, cellular telephone, and landline telephone. The presentation will provide an overview of the challenges and solutions. Dr. Mokdad recently joined the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The main mission of IHME is to monitor global health conditions and health systems, as well as evaluate interventions, initiatives, and reforms. This will provide high quality and timely information on health so that policymakers, researchers, donors, practitioners, local decision-makers, and others can better allocate limited resources to achieve optimal results.

1 0

Upcoming Change Event
by Natalie Linnell 15 Jan '09

15 Jan '09

Change is a group of faculty, students, and staff at the University of Washington who are exploring the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in improving the lives of underserved populations, especially in the developing world. We will be hosting a poster session with light refreshments on Thursday, February 26 from 5:00-7:00 PM in the atrium of the Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering. In addition to helping network those interested in this field, the event will also kick off a speaker series on ICTs in Development that will start in Spring quarter. Contact Natalie Linnell (linnell(a)cs.washington.edu) if you are interested in presenting a poster of your work and please forward this announcement as appropriate. When: Thursday February 26, 5:00-7:00 PM Where: Atrium, Paul Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering http://www.washington.edu/home/maps/southcentral.html?CSE

1 0

ROOM CHANGE for January 14 event - CIS Speaker Series
by Melody Clark 14 Jan '09

14 Jan '09

Hello all! I apologize for any inconveniences, but we just had a last minute room change for tomorrow's speaker event. Instead of Mary Gates Hall 241, we will now be in Mary Gates Hall 228. We will have signs in place at MGH 241, but I wanted to give you all the heads up. Thank you, and hope to see you tomorrow! Melody GUEST LECTURE SERIES ONLINE BUDDHIST COMMUNITY, AUTHORITY AND IDENTITY WHAT: CIS is hosting a monthly Guest Lecture Series, and this is the first Lecture in the series. The format will include a presentation by a UW researcher (faculty/staff/student) accompanied by two panel members from other disciplines. *WHERE: Mary Gates Hall 228* WHEN: January 14th, 2008, 4-5pm LECTURER: Laura Busch – Dept. of Communications TITLE: Online Buddhist Community, Authority and Identity: a case study on how the process of spiritualizing technology impact religious identity and authority in a Buddhist Web forum. ABSTRACT: This study analyzes the Buddhist message forum E-sangha, to analyze how this forum's founder and moderators 'spiritualized the Internet' using contemporary, narratives of global Buddhist community, and in doing so, provided these actors authority in determining the boundaries of Buddhist orthodoxy and identity. Through a qualitative structural and textual analysis of E-sangha Web space, this study demonstrates how religious community narratives provide Web producers and forum moderators the opportunity to frame Web environments as sacred community spaces, which inherently allows those in control of the site the authority to set the boundaries of religious identity and hence, who can take part in the community. PANEL MEMBERS: Gad Barzilai – Jackson School's Law, Societies, and Justice Program, Rucha Ambikar – Center for Information & Society Box 354985 Seattle, WA 98195 Tel 206.616.9101 Fax 206.616.5149 cisinfo(a)u.washington.edu www.cis.washington.edu -- Melody Clark MLIS Candidate 2010 - University of Washington Coordinator - Center for Information and Society mobile: 206.303.7910 email: melody.r.clark(a)gmail.com or melclark(a)u.washington.edu

1 1

ROOM CHANGE for January 14 event - CIS Speaker Series
by Melody Clark 13 Jan '09

13 Jan '09

Hello all! I apologize for any inconveniences, but we just had a last minute room change for tomorrow's speaker event. Instead of Mary Gates Hall 241, we will now be in Mary Gates Hall 228. We will have signs in place at MGH 241, but I wanted to give you all the heads up. Thank you, and hope to see you tomorrow! Melody GUEST LECTURE SERIES ONLINE BUDDHIST COMMUNITY, AUTHORITY AND IDENTITY WHAT: CIS is hosting a monthly Guest Lecture Series, and this is the first Lecture in the series. The format will include a presentation by a UW researcher (faculty/staff/student) accompanied by two panel members from other disciplines. *WHERE: Mary Gates Hall 228* WHEN: January 14th, 2008, 4-5pm LECTURER: Laura Busch – Dept. of Communications TITLE: Online Buddhist Community, Authority and Identity: a case study on how the process of spiritualizing technology impact religious identity and authority in a Buddhist Web forum. ABSTRACT: This study analyzes the Buddhist message forum E-sangha, to analyze how this forum's founder and moderators 'spiritualized the Internet' using contemporary, narratives of global Buddhist community, and in doing so, provided these actors authority in determining the boundaries of Buddhist orthodoxy and identity. Through a qualitative structural and textual analysis of E-sangha Web space, this study demonstrates how religious community narratives provide Web producers and forum moderators the opportunity to frame Web environments as sacred community spaces, which inherently allows those in control of the site the authority to set the boundaries of religious identity and hence, who can take part in the community. PANEL MEMBERS: Gad Barzilai – Jackson School's Law, Societies, and Justice Program, Rucha Ambikar – Center for Information & Society Box 354985 Seattle, WA 98195 Tel 206.616.9101 Fax 206.616.5149 cisinfo(a)u.washington.edu www.cis.washington.edu -- Melody Clark MLIS Candidate 2010 - University of Washington Coordinator - Center for Information and Society mobile: 206.303.7910 email: melody.r.clark(a)gmail.com or melclark(a)u.washington.edu

1 0