February 2009 - change - Mailing Lists

Upcoming talks
by Richard Anderson 05 Feb '09

05 Feb '09

Feb 11, 4:00 pm, CSE 403: Beth Kolko and Ruth Anderson, Building a Grassroots Transportation Information System Feb 18, ** 3:00 pm, MGH 420 ** (note change of time and location), Richard Anderson, Video Based Instruction in Rural India. Feb 25, 4:00 pm, CSE 403, Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, NYU. Mar 4, 4:00 pm, CSE 403, Saurabh Panjwani, MSR India Mar 11, 4:00 pm, CSE 403, Steve Wagner, Implementing a PEPFAR-funded Electronic Medical Records Project in Haiti

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UBICOMP 2009 Workshop CFP - Taking Ubicomp Beyond Developed Worlds
by Yaw Anokwa 05 Feb '09

05 Feb '09

****** UBICOMP 2009 Workshop ************************** Globicomp - Taking Ubicomp Beyond Developed Worlds Sept 30th 2009, Florida, USA Organisers: Matt Jones (Swansea, UK) & Gary Marsden (UCT, South Africa) http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009 in conjunction with ubicomp 2009 (http://www.ubicomp.org/ubicomp2009/) *************************************************************** First Call for Position Papers --------------------------------------- Ubicomp - everywhere, everybody technology and systems. But are we really exploring inclusive visions? Is ubicomp for everyone or only the relatively affluent? This workshop is about the billions of people who do not fit the sorts of context mainstream ubicomp has addressed. There are hundreds of millions of users, and billions to come in the next 5 years, in places like India, China and Africa, whose first, and perhaps only, experience of computing will be in the form of mobile and other ubicomp technologies. Many of these users will never live in the sorts of home, or work in the types of office, or daydream in the parks, or take a day-off for the sorts of amusement park envisaged by earlier research. If you are already working on developing world ubicomp, or are interested in finding out how to create effective technologies for these new environments, then we would encourage you to contribute and attend the workshop. But it is not just 'developing' countries. What about the marginalised in our 'developed' world - the urban poor, the ill-educated, the homeless, the computer non-literate; i.e. those without access to what many of us take as essential digital infrastructure? We invite contributions considering these contexts too. Accepted participants will be encouraged to produce posters, videos or interactive demos which will be showcased in the main conference. The Ubicomp organisers are keen to see this topic discussed amongst all the attendees. Submissions ------------------ Position papers of up to 4 pages in length should be formatted using the ACM template and advice found here. Papers in two categories are welcome: 1. Those considering either specific innovations or applications of ubicomp to "developing" world and other marginalised contexts; 2. and, from researchers who wish to raise issues or discuss the potential of mainstream ubicomp to these sorts of underrepresented constituencies. Topics of interest include (but of course are not limited to!): 1. Interface and interaction issues 2. Devices and infrastructure 3. Design and development methodologies 4. Environmental impact and sustainability 5. Case studies and experience reports 6. Theoretical perspectives and critiques See the website for submission details <http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009> Key Dates --------------- Papers due: June 23, 2009 Acceptance notifications: July 24, 2009 Final copy due: September 1, 2009 Workshop: September 30, 2009 Publications/ Dissemination ------------------ Papers will be made available online before the workshop Posters & demos will be showcased in the main Ubicomp Conference A special issue of Springer/ACM Personal & Ubiquitous Computing is scheduled for after the workshop (full paper submissions will be solicited in a separate call). Programme Committee -------------------------------- Russell Beale University of Birmingham, UK Nicola Bidwell James Cook University, Australia Eli Blevis, Indiana University, USA Stephen Brewster Glasgow University, UK Anxo Cereijo Roibas Vodafone User Experience Keith Cheverst Lancaster University, UK Andrew Deardon, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Jussi Impio, Nokia, Kenya Amit A Navavati IBM Research, India Abigal Sellen Microsoft Research, UK Yvonne Rogers, Open University, UK Lucia Terrenghi Vodafone R&D, Germany. Further committee members to be confirmed.

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Talk Announcement, Wednesday, Feb 4. Maria Garrido, CIS
by Richard Anderson 04 Feb '09

04 Feb '09

CSE 590 F Seminar 4:00 pm, Wednesday, February 4 CSE 403. The importance of social movement networks in development communication: Lessons from the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas, Mexico Maria Garrido, UW Center of Information & Society ABSTRACT: The research explores the contribution of social movements' networks to promote economic and social development in marginalized communities in Latin America. In particular, it draws upon the experiences of the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas, Mexico, to illustrate the way in which the actors that formed the Zapatista solidarity network are collaborating and working together with the movement's members to improve the lives of the indigenous communities in the region and promoting social change. The last decade has seen a resurgence of civil society organizations collaborating with one and other in the quest for social change. Fueled in part by the development of information technologies - particularly the Internet - these organizations are finding alternative spaces of communication to voice their concerns and raise awareness of locally engrained social struggles beyond their borders. These alternative communication spaces, inherently, are also enabling civil society organizations to build local, national, and transnational alliances with other actors working together against the negative effects of what they perceive as a socially predatory economic globalization process. The research uses social network analysis and network ethnography to tease out the structure of the Zapatista network, the resources that flow within the network and the impact they have in promoting development goals, and the factors at the local, national, and international level that influence what social movement networks can accomplish in their pursuit of social change. BIO: Maria Garrido is a research associate for the Center of Information & Society at the University of Washington. Her research explores the role of information technology in fostering economic development in low-income communities in Latin America, the United States, and in a recent study, in Central and Eastern Europe. She has published research on how grassroots organizations make use of information technology as a tool to mobilize civil society and to create networks of solidarity to work towards social change She earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, a Masters in International Relations at the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Communications at the University of Washington.

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Center for Information & Society (CIS) Speaker Series - February 18, 2009
by Melody Clark 02 Feb '09

02 Feb '09

Please forward as applicable - thank you! SPEAKER SERIES DIGITAL STUDYHALL: VIDEO BASED INSTRUCTION IN RURAL INDIA WHAT: CIS is hosting a monthly Speaker Series which will include a presentation by a UW researcher (faculty/staff/student) accompanied by two panel members from varying disciplines. WHERE: Mary Gates Hall Rm. 420 WHEN: February 18th, 2008 3-4pm LECTURER: Richard Anderson - Computer Science Department TITLE: Digital StudyHall: Video Based Instruction in Rural India ABSTRACT: Digital StudyHall is an education project in Lucknow, India that aims to link together strong urban schools with poor rural schools through facilitated video instruction. Lessons are video recorded in the urban schools, and then shown in rural schools by classroom teachers. A key component of the instruction is that the classroom teachers will stop the video for classroom activities. The Digital StudyHall project is about three years old and has been replicated at a number of sites in India and Bangladesh. To date, the evaluation studies of Digital StudyHall have been limited - looking at results of a small number of schools without adequate controls. In this talk, Richard will first give background on the Digital StudyHall project, and then describe a research study that they are starting with twelve schools in Lucknow which have not previously been involved with the project. The goal is to assess educational outcomes of the teaching methodology and also to gain a deeper understanding of deployment costs and issues. Additional information about Digital StudyHall is available at dsh.cs.washington.edu. PANEL MEMBERS: Mike Eisenberg (Information School) and Steve Kerr (College of Education) Box 354985 Seattle, WA 98195 Tel 206.616.9101 Fax 206.616.5149 <mailto:cisinfo@u.washington.edu> cisinfo(a)u.washington.edu <http://www.cis.washington.edu> www.cis.washington.edu

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