February 2010 - change - Mailing Lists

Web/ICT4D volunteer position in Guatemala
by Yaw Anokwa 05 Feb '10

05 Feb '10

A long-term Web/ICT4D volunteer position (includes room and board) just opened up with organization, AIDG, in Guatemala. ------- WEB DEVELOPER / IT GURU (Guatemala) - VOLUNTEER DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW The Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) works to provide rural villages in developing countries with affordable and environmentally sound technologies that meet their needs for electricity, sanitation and clean water. Through a combination of business incubation, education, training and outreach, AIDG helps individuals and communities gain access to technology that will improve their lives. Our model provides a novel approach to sustainable development by empowering people with the physical tools and practical knowledge to solve infrastructure problems in their own communities. Currently, AIDG Guatemala seeks a passionate and dedicated web developer / IT guru to support several exciting new initiatives within the organization. The roles and responsibilities of this position are described below. NOTE: THIS IS A VOLUNTEER POSITION (VOLUNTEERS RECEIVE MONTHLY FOOD AND BOARD REIMBURSEMENT). For more information on AIDG volunteers and interns, please refer to AIDG’s website (http://www.aidg.com) LOCATION: Quetzaltenango, Guatemala DURATION: 12 months POSITION DESCRIPTION: The successful candidate responsibilities will include: * Development of a sector-wide platform to help identify, evaluate, and support social entrepreneurs in developing countries * Development and maintenance of AIDG.net, AIDG's online library for the dissemination of technical designs and appropriate technology information * General web and IT support across the organization, including support of our multi-country IT infrastructure, maintenance of AIDG.org, support of AIDG's intranet/wiki, and the development of tools to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of our R&D and Business Incubation activities. This is a full-time position with a commitment of 12 months, with preference given to candidates available for a longer time period. The position will generally require the applicant to work from 8:30am-5:00pm Monday-Friday (flexibly). PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: Applicants interested in this internship should possess the following skills: * Prior experience developing and supporting large-scale data driven web applications * PHP/MySQL proficiency is required. Java / .NET experience is a plus * Hands on experience deploying and customizing open source CMS platforms such as Joomla.or Drupal * Solid web design skills, including HTML/CSS expertise. An eye for graphic/UI design and knowledge of Photoshop will be helpful * General IT support experience in a mixed PC/Mac/Linux environment * Strong leadership and communication skills * Demonstrated initiative and ability to work independently with minimal supervision * At least a basic level of Spanish. French is a plus as well. All candidates should possess strong communication skills, be self-motivated, and willing to work hands-on. AIDG seeks versatile, mature, friendly, independent, and dedicated individuals, who also possess a good sense of humor. APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: Qualified applicants should send their cover letter and resume or CV to internships(a)aidg.org<mailto:internships@aidg.org> . Please include your earliest date of arrival and duration availability. -- Stephen Lee Director of Operations Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) +1.415.508.4464 http://www.aidg.org

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OpenMRS Developer Training Week 8-February-2010
by Yaw Anokwa 05 Feb '10

05 Feb '10

OpenMRS is having a Developer Traning week starting Feb. 8, 2010. If anyone is interested there's more information at the link below. If you can't attend physically, they will also be hosting it via a web conference. You should contact Michael Downey at mjdowney(a)iupui.edu<mailto:mjdowney@iupui.edu>. http://openmrs.org/wiki/OpenMRS_Developer_Training_Week_8-February-2010

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world bank is hiring in ehealth
by Yaw Anokwa 04 Feb '10

04 Feb '10

the world bank is hiring a senior ict specialist in ehealth. deadline february 11th. http://is.gd/7Gy3J

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CFP: NSDR2010 - Networked Systems for Developing Regions
by Gaetano Borriello 03 Feb '10

03 Feb '10

CALL FOR PAPERS 4th ACM Workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions (NSDR2010) (now merged with the ACM Wireless Networks and Systems for Developing Regions Workshop - WiNS-DR) Co-located with the 8th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services (MobiSys 2010) San Francisco, CA, USA June 15th, 2010 http://www.dritte.org/nsdr10 Important Dates * Submission Deadline: April 9, 2010 (23:59 PST) * Notification: May 3, 2010 * Camera-ready: May 17, 2010 * Workshop: June 15, 2010 Background Following three successful workshops of NSDR at SIGCOMM 2007, SIGCOMM 2008 and SOSP 2009, the 4th ACM Workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions (NSDR?0) will provide a venue for researchers to propose and discuss ideas concerning the design, implementation and evaluation of new computing and communications technologies to support the sustainable development of developing regions. The 4th NSDR workshop is also merging efforts with the ACM Wireless Networks and Systems for Developing Regions workshop (WiNS-DR) which was co-located with MobiCom 2008. More than a billion, less fortunate, people on this planet survive on less than a dollar a day. Appropriate Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD) has the potential to significantly impact the lives of many in the bottom billion. The decreasing cost and increasing access to information and communication technologies (e.g., mobile phones) are rapidly enabling access to new services and markets for previously disconnected populations. However, due to a variety of factors, including cost, literacy, education, and organizational capacity, conventional approaches to technology design and implementation are often not relevant. Addressing this requires engagement of several disciplines, including but not limited to economics, sociology, anthropology, and political science, and expertise in a variety of application areas - including government, health, finance and agriculture. Thus, in addition to considering the specifics of networking protocols and architectures, the aim of the workshop is to consider the entire system by which networking and communication is provided, all the key technical stakeholders, and the overall system lifecycle from economic modeling to deployment. NSDR specifically focuses on the technical networking and systems research challenges that arise in the development of new computing solutions appropriate for developing regions where conventional solutions are often inappropriate and the development of new research approaches and innovative designs and techniques is often required. NSDR solicits papers that either highlight important networking and systems challenges in this space or describe the deployment and evaluation of novel technologies or applications that address a specific need. We encourage submission of position papers or the results of preliminary work describing interesting, original, previously unpublished ideas or results pertaining to the design, implementation and/or evaluation of networks and systems for developing regions. Papers, Topics of Interest We encourage submission of position papers or the results of preliminary work describing interesting, original, previously unpublished ideas or results pertaining to the design, implementation and/or evaluation of networks and systems for developing regions. Accepted papers will: * Propose new research directions; * Target a specific application; * Inform design and/or deployment; and/or * Generate lively debate at the workshop. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: * Low-cost wireless connectivity * Intermittent and delay-tolerant systems * Rural network planning and spectrum management protocols and techniques * Mechanisms for emergency and urgent communications * Location-aware systems * Power-efficient systems * Low-cost computing devices * Mobile systems and applications * Middleware and mechanisms for minimizing energy, latency and storage (caching etc) * Adapting content and applications for local languages * User interfaces for low-literacy populations * Shared access devices and infrastructure, including personalization and privacy concerns * Design and evaluation of applications and in-depth case studies in the areas of public health, microfinance, agriculture, e-governance, education, monitoring, disaster management, etc. Submission Instructions Submissions must be no greater than 6 pages (six pages) in length (including figures and references), must use a minimum 10pt font and minimum 1inch margins, must be in the form of a PDF file, and must follow formatting guidelines and instructions at: http://www.dritte.org/nsdr10/submit.html Submissions that deviate from these guidelines will be rejected without consideration. Reviews will be SINGLE-BLIND: authors' names and affiliations should be included in the submission. Authors of accepted papers are expected to present their papers at the workshop. Submissions must be original work not under review at any other workshop, conference or journal. Program Committee Gaetano Borriello, University of Washington (Program Co-Chair) Bhaskaran Raman, IIT-Mumbai (Program Co-Chair) Muneeb Ali, Princeton University Ken Banks, kiwanja.net Eric Brewer, University of California at Berkeley Ravi Jain, Google Sharad Jaiswal, Alcatel-Lucent Mahesh Marina, University of Edinburgh Prasant Mohapatra, University of California at Davis Vivek Pai, Princeton University Tapan Parikh, University of California at Berkeley Umar Saif, Lahore University of Management Sciences Lakshmi Subramanian, New York University Bill Thies, Microsoft Research India Arun Venkataramani, University of Massachusetts Steering Committee Elizabeth Belding, University of California at Santa Barbara Gaetano Borriello, University of Washington Eric Brewer, University of California at Berkeley Ravi Jain, Google Umar Saif, Lahore University of Management Sciences Lakshmi Subramanian, New York University

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Rohit Chaudhri on A Programmable Accessory for Cell Phones
by Yaw Anokwa 03 Feb '10

03 Feb '10

This Thursday at Change, UW grad student Rohit Chaudhri will presenting his work on A Programmable Accessory for Cell Phones. Rohit says, “Low-tier cell phones like the Nokia 1100, 1200, 2600 etc, are commonly used by individuals from low-income groups in developing regions. While these phones are cheap and affordable (within the $20-$30 range), they do not have a programmable runtime environment like Android, J2ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile etc, as is available on mid to high tier mobile phones. Hence mobile application developers are unable to create applications for these phones. This restricts the services that can be delivered to users of such phones. In this talk I will present an approach to extend the capabilities of low-tier cell phones. This uses a microcontroller-based accessory connected to the phone to achieve the goal. The idea is to use the cell phone for IO and communications, while application specific computation is offloaded to the microcontroller. I will present the high-level architecture of the system and then discuss implementation and platform capabilities. I will show a location aware application based on this platform. Towards the end I will discuss other possible applications. If folks have ideas about how this platform can be used for ICTD research, it would be great to discuss those during the talk. I built this platform during my recent internship at MSR India in Bangalore. In prototype scale production, a completely assembled unit costs around $15. A tech report about this work is available at: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/?id=117754. If time permits I will mention about other fun projects I was involved in during this awesome internship!” What: Rohit Chaudhri on A Programmable Accessory for Cell Phones When: Thursday, February 4 at Noon Where: UW, Paul Allen Center, Room 203

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Summer Internships at the Berkman Center
by Yaw Anokwa 03 Feb '10

03 Feb '10

Summer Internships & Research Assistantships at the Berkman Center for Information & Society at Harvard For 10 weeks each summer The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University swings opens the doors of its big yellow house to welcome a group of talented, curious, and energetic full-time interns who are passionate about the promise of the Internet and issues related to media and journalism, civic engagement, policy, identity and privacy, education, technology, the developing world, law, and more... http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/internships#summer

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Open Data Kit Wins Google Focused Research Award
by Yaw Anokwa 02 Feb '10

02 Feb '10

Today, Google announced (at http://is.gd/7yd3Y) the first-ever round of Google Focused Research Awards — funding research in areas of study that are of key interest to Google as well as the research community. These awards, totaling $5.7 million, cover four areas: machine learning, the use of mobile phones as data collection devices for public health and environment monitoring, energy efficiency in computing, and privacy. These unrestricted grants are for two to three years, and the recipients will have the advantage of access to Google tools, technologies and expertise. They've given awards to 12 projects led by 31 professors at 10 universities. Open Data Kit (at http://is.gd/7ydu7) is one of two in the mobile data collection category and we are very excited about what this funding will enable over the next few years. We can't do this work without the support of the folks at UW and in Change, so thanks for making ODK a better project. Yaw

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economist michael spence on economic growth
by Yaw Anokwa 01 Feb '10

01 Feb '10

if you have an hour and like the economics of development, check out http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/01/spence_on_growt.html. Nobel Laureate Michael Spence of Stanford University's Hoover Institution and the Commission on Growth and Development talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the determinants of economic growth. Spence discusses the findings of the Commission's recent report and how it compares to earlier attempts to uncover the sources of growth and the lack of growth such as the Washington Consensus. Spence makes the case for government provision of infrastructure including education and the problems of corruption and governance. The conversation closes with a look at Spence's career and the lessons of that experience. the podcast links (especially the growth report and links to interviews with collier, hanushek, kling and easterly) are also good references.

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