December 2015 - change - Mailing Lists

Fwd: ODK Discussion Series: ELMO and the Carter Center
by Yaw Anokwa 21 Dec '15

21 Dec '15

Eight post from the ODK Discussion Series. Participate using the link below. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: cmsehat(a)gmail.com Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2015 06:45:17 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ODK Community] ODK around the World Discussion Series: ELMO and the Carter Center To: "opendatakit(a)googlegroups.com" <opendatakit(a)googlegroups.com> Dear ODK Community, We are happy to share how we are extending Gaetano’s impact and ODK’s power into the fields of elections, human rights, and health. Since 2011, we’ve been building an open source platform that we call ELMO (http://getelmo.org) in order to get a real-time picture of what goes on around polling stations on election day. But since then, the ELMO data collection and analysis system has grown to be much more. For the Carter Center, the ability of our observing teams to submit their observations of the election process (now not only through ODK, but also SMS or any browser) is part of a larger effort to ensure _rigorous accountability_. This is why, for example, we’ve created a template architecture that allows for the reuse of questions and forms (a standardization process that allows for comparison of information across time and contexts) as well as facilitating exports into more advanced reporting and analytical platforms (e.g. Tableau, R, Stata, MaxQDA). The ability to create multiple forms covers a range of needs— from simple weekly M&E charting (“how many drugs were distributed this week?”) to in-depth and long-text reports (“what is the political environment like is Province A?”) — thereby allowing for as rich a picture of the situation as possible. Read more https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/opendatakit/vNteGeb8Q6U

1 0

Mobile Information Literacy Project & Curriculum Released
by Melody Clark 17 Dec '15

17 Dec '15

As millions of people come online across the globe through mobile devices, mobile information literacy is vital for those who have leapfrogged from traditional media to digital devices that provide instant access to information. Mobile information literacy is necessary to help people learn how to find and evaluate the quality and credibility of information obtained online, understand how to create and share online information effectively, and participate safely and securely. Mobile information literacy is critical to help people better consume, generate, and disseminate trustworthy information through both digital and traditional media. The Technology & Social Change Group<http://tascha.uw.edu/>, along with our partners at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies<https://jsis.washington.edu/>, has launched a new project, Mobile Information Literacy<http://tascha.uw.edu/projects/mobile-information-literacy/>. The first output of the project is a six-module Mobile Information Literacy Curriculum<http://tascha.uw.edu/mobile-information-literacy-curriculum/> for mobile-first users, which is now available for download, use, and adaptation. The new project and curriculum are part of a larger program, Information Strategies for Societies in Transition<http://tascha.uw.edu/projects/information-strategies-for-societies-in-trans…>. This program is situated in Myanmar, a country undergoing massive political, economic, and social changes, and where mobile penetration is expected to reach 80% by the end of 2015 from just 4% in 2014. Combined with the country's history of media censorship, Myanmar presents unique challenges for addressing the needs of people who need the ability to find and evaluate the quality and credibility of information obtained online, understand how to create and share online information effectively, and participate safely and securely. The curriculum focuses on critical thinking in a digital environment of smart phones, mobile phones, and tablets, filling a critical gap in digital information literacy curricula. Existing curricular models assume people learn on a personal computer (PC). While this has been the case historically, the next billion people coming online will most likely learn on a mobile device. This has huge implications for how people get online, how they access and experience the internet, how much they produce in addition to consume information, and even how they conceptualize the internet itself. For instance, research shows that in Myanmar (and many other countries) more people use Facebook than the internet. Mobile-specific practices, such as zero-rating, mean people are coming online much more frequently through a handful of "walled garden" applications without an understanding of and similar access to the broader internet. Also, some mobile applications and websites don't offer the full functionality of their PC counterparts. The curriculum aims to address these differences and empower mobile internet users to be equal participants in the online world. The curriculum includes the following six modules: * Module 1: Introduction to Mobile Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)<http://tascha.uw.edu/mobile-information-literacy-module-1> * Module 2: A Mobile Lens on the Internet<http://tascha.uw.edu/mobile-information-literacy-module-2> * Module 3: Basic Web Searching via Mobile Devices<http://tascha.uw.edu/mobile-information-literacy-module-3> * Module 4: Working Online and Using Information via Mobile Devices<http://tascha.uw.edu/mobile-information-literacy-module-4> * Module 5: Putting It All Together<http://tascha.uw.edu/mobile-information-literacy-5/> * Module 6: Module 5 Project Presentations<http://tascha.uw.edu/mobile-information-literacy-module-6> All curriculum module guides and accompanying slidedecks can be found on the Mobile Information Literacy Curriculum Research Collection<http://tascha.uw.edu/collections/mobile-information-literacy-curriculum/> page. The curriculum addresses various topics surrounding mobile information literacy, such as: * Mobile ICT basics * Affordances of mobile phones * The difference between the internet and the World Wide Web * Using search engines * Using collaborative tools such as Dropbox, Google Docs, and Facebook Groups on mobile devices * Online safety and privacy * "Netiquette" and how to work with others and share information on mobile devices The curriculum and training guide were designed to be flexible and customizable, depending on the baseline skills of those being trained, and translated into other languages. In countries and contexts like Myanmar, where for many using a mobile phone marks their first experience with the internet and digital technology, these training materials can be used by various organizations, such as libraries and NGOs, to both train their staff and to build knowledge, skills, and mobile information literacy competencies within the populations they serve. In Myanmar the materials have been translated into Burmese, and master training sessions have been conducted to train library staff to further train their colleagues, as well as library patrons. Our partners in Myanmar have also conducted training sessions at the Ministry of Information. The curriculum materials are offered here with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/>, so others are free to use, adapt, and share the materials with attribution. We are also available to help organizations create customized materials based on their particular country or regional contexts and literacy training needs. If you have questions on the curriculum or would like more information on how we can help, please email us at tascha(a)uw.edu<mailto:tascha@uw.edu>. We also encourage individuals and organizations that use and adapt this curriculum and training to provide us with any feedback, ideas, and adapted materials. There are many ways you can do this: emailtascha(a)uw.edu<mailto:tascha@uw.edu>, leave a comment and upload materials on the main Mobile Information Literacy curriculum webpage http://tascha.uw.edu/mobile-information-literacy-curriculum, and/or participate on our Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/MobileInformationLiteracy. -- Melody Clark Communications Specialist Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) University of Washington Information School melclark(a)uw.edu<mailto:melclark@uw.edu> | 206.303.7910 Twitter: @taschagroup<https://twitter.com/taschagroup> | @melodyrclark<https://twitter.com/#!/melodyrclark> tascha.uw.edu<http://tascha.uw.edu/>

1 0

Fwd: ODK Discussion Series: Using ODK as a data source for DHIS2 and Salesforce
by Yaw Anokwa 17 Dec '15

17 Dec '15

Seventh post from the ODK Discussion Series. Participate using the link below. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Taylor Downs <downs.taylor(a)gmail.com> Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:53:57 -0800 (PST) Subject: [ODK Community] Discussion Series: Using ODK as a data source for DHIS2 and Salesforce To: "opendatakit(a)googlegroups.com" <opendatakit(a)googlegroups.com> Hi Everyone, My name is Taylor Downs, and I've been a big ODK "fanboy" since I first came across it working for an HIV-prevention organization in South Africa about five years ago. In 2010 I co-founded a consulting company (Vera Solutions) that has since designed and implemented data systems for more than 160 social impact organizations around the world. As more and more of these implementations required full-featured cloud-based backends AND inexpensive, easy-to-use, offline-capable mobile tools we found ourselves needing to mix and match technologies. ODK became our mobile data-capture workhorse, and Salesforce.com our backend of choice. The flexibility of ODK (and xForms) makes it powerful, but also difficult to integrate—at times it feels like we're trying to hit a moving target. Our clients demand complex forms, and the ability to change those forms often as their programs evolve. Hard-coding integrations for each project was too costly and time-consuming, so we set out to develop an open-source integration platform that could be used to quickly and easily connect "source" ODK submission data (actually, any JSON data—provided you have prior knowledge of the schema) to Salesforce.com, DHIS2, and other "destination" systems. Read more https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/opendatakit/f0Z9PMcV198

1 0

New UW Masters degree in Data Science
by Melody Clark 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

http://www.washington.edu/news/2015/12/14/uw-board-of-regents-approves-new-… -- Melody Clark Communications Specialist Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) University of Washington Information School melclark(a)uw.edu<mailto:melclark@uw.edu> | 206.303.7910 Twitter: @taschagroup<https://twitter.com/taschagroup> | @melodyrclark<https://twitter.com/#!/melodyrclark> tascha.uw.edu<http://tascha.uw.edu/>

1 0

Calling aspiring researchers, hackers, designers, thinkers for the Stanford Crowd Research Winter Program
by Melody Clark 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Just passing this along for Rajan - please contact him with any questions. ** Calling aspiring researchers, hackers, designers, thinkers for the Stanford Crowd Research Winter Program** After huge success in the Spring and Summer sessions, researchers from Stanford University are inviting aspiring researchers to join them in an effort to form the largest crowdsourcing research project ever. The accepted participants will get a chance to design and develop the next-generation crowdsourcing platform - Daemo<http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2015/crowdresearch/daemo-uist.pdf>. Besides, the program will give academic research experience and a chance to co-author paper with researchers at a top-tier conference - primarily in human-computer interaction. Students from any department, pursuing any degree are encouraged to apply. Deadline for the application is 31st December, 2015. Please check: hci.st/joinstanfordresearchers<http://hci.st/joinstanfordresearchers> for more details or contact Rajan Vaish with any questions at rvaish(a)cs.stanford.edu<mailto:rvaish@cs.stanford.edu>. ** Thanks so much, Rajan

1 0

Fwd: ODK Discussion Series: Use of ODK after the Nepal Earthquake
by Yaw Anokwa 13 Dec '15

13 Dec '15

Sixth post from the ODK Discussion Series. Participate using the link below. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Prabhas Pokharel <prabhas.pokharel(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Nov 25, 2015 at 7:23 AM Subject: [ODK Community] Discussion Series: Use of ODK after the Nepal Earthquake To: "opendatakit(a)googlegroups.com" <opendatakit(a)googlegroups.com>, Nirab Pudasaini <developernirab(a)gmail.com> Hi all, I am Prabhas Pokharel, and I have been a part of the ODK community since 2010. I have worked with the Formhub team, the Ona.io team, as well as with Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL) to build tools around ODK and apply them in the field. I only had the chance to meet Gaetano twice, but both times, was struck by his openness and dedication to creating a community of innovators around the ODK platform. In this series celebrating the impact of Gaetano's work, I wanted to write about how ODK was used in the aftermath of the Earthquake in Nepal earlier this year. I was in Nepal at the time, and worked very closely with local non-profit technology organization KLL for two months after the earthquake, using digital tools to facilitate coordination and systematic relief provision. Read more at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/opendatakit/T7WGCJU27VY..

1 0

Fwd: [TIER] DTL 2016 Summer Internships at NYU Abu Dhabi
by Yaw Anokwa 13 Dec '15

13 Dec '15

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jay Chen <jay.chen(a)nyu.edu> Date: Sat, Dec 12, 2015 at 8:46 PM Subject: [TIER] DTL 2016 Summer Internships at NYU Abu Dhabi To: TIER(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu Hi Everyone, For the past few years I have offered summer internships to a handful of outstanding students at the Design Technology Lab (DTL) (http://sites.nyuad.nyu.edu/dtl/) in NYU Abu Dhabi. We are based out of Abu Dhabi and we work actively in multiple countries including UAE, Ghana, Bangladesh, and India. If you would like to work on an exciting ICTD project with us over summer, this could be an interesting opportunity. Attached is a brief job description. Cheers, Jay Chen DTL Summer 2015 Internship Job Description: The Design Technology Lab (DTL) is looking for graduate student interns for the summer of 2015. We are looking for students with good engineering skills, an eye for design, and a strong interest in field work. The range of possible project areas are broad and include: - Networking and networked systems - Specific systems or interfaces for applications in education, finance, and health, and agriculture - Large-scale data analysis, mining, and interactive visualization Requirements: - B.S./B.A. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or closely related field - Facility in C/C++, Python, Java and/or analysis tools like Matlab Depending on your summer schedule, the internship will run from 12-14 weeks. This is a paid internship. Only students who are eligible to work in the UAE should apply. Please send your CV and a cover letter to nyuad.dtl(a)gmail.com with the subject: “DTL Summer Intern”. The deadline to apply is March 5, 2015. The Design Technology Lab is a multidisciplinary research center at NYU Abu Dhabi (UAE). Our mission is to design technologies that positively impact people’s lives. Within ICTD, our goal is to bring services to rural communities including: access to education, finance, health, and information services in rural areas. The DTL draws from a broad multidisciplinary expertise available at the Center for Technology and Economic Development (CTED), NYU, and NYU Polytechnic Institute in economics, computer science, engineering, and design. _______________________________________________ TIER mailing list Website: http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu TIER(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tier

1 0

Fwd: [TIER] Nice video profile of Nepal Wireless' founder
by Yaw Anokwa 13 Dec '15

13 Dec '15

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Colin Scott <cs(a)cs.berkeley.edu> Date: Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 5:07 AM Subject: [TIER] Nice video profile of Nepal Wireless' founder To: "tier(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu" <tier(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu> Founder is a Nepalese man, Mahabir Pun: https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/148060514 _______________________________________________ TIER mailing list Website: http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu TIER(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tier

1 0

DTL 2016 Summer Internships at NYU Abu Dhabi
by Waylon Brunette 12 Dec '15

12 Dec '15

Hi Everyone, For the past few years I have offered summer internships to a handful of outstanding students at the Design Technology Lab (DTL) (http://sites.nyuad.nyu.edu/dtl/) in NYU Abu Dhabi. We are based out of Abu Dhabi and we work actively in multiple countries including UAE, Ghana, Bangladesh, and India. If you would like to work on an exciting ICTD project with us over summer, this could be an interesting opportunity. Attached is a brief job description. Cheers, Jay Chen DTL Summer 2015 Internship Job Description: The Design Technology Lab (DTL) is looking for graduate student interns for the summer of 2015. We are looking for students with good engineering skills, an eye for design, and a strong interest in field work. The range of possible project areas are broad and include: - Networking and networked systems - Specific systems or interfaces for applications in education, finance, and health, and agriculture - Large-scale data analysis, mining, and interactive visualization Requirements: - B.S./B.A. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or closely related field - Facility in C/C++, Python, Java and/or analysis tools like Matlab Depending on your summer schedule, the internship will run from 12-14 weeks. This is a paid internship. Only students who are eligible to work in the UAE should apply. Please send your CV and a cover letter to nyuad.dtl(a)gmail.com<mailto:nyuad.dtl@gmail.com> with the subject: “DTL Summer Intern”. The deadline to apply is March 5, 2015. The Design Technology Lab is a multidisciplinary research center at NYU Abu Dhabi (UAE). Our mission is to design technologies that positively impact people’s lives. Within ICTD, our goal is to bring services to rural communities including: access to education, finance, health, and information services in rural areas. The DTL draws from a broad multidisciplinary expertise available at the Center for Technology and Economic Development (CTED), NYU, and NYU Polytechnic Institute in economics, computer science, engineering, and design.

1 0

Fwd: CfP for CHI Workshop in San Jose | Development Consortium 2016: HCI Across Borders
by Nicola Dell 10 Dec '15

10 Dec '15

We are organizing an awesome workshop at CHI 2016 that focuses on "HCI across borders". I think many of you will find interesting. Please submit and attend if you can! *Call for Proposals* Two-Day Workshop in San Jose (CA, USA) at CHI 2016 <http://chi2016.acm.org/> Development Consortium 2016: HCI Across Borders <http://hci4dacrossborders.wordpress.com/> 7th-8th May, 2016 *About the Workshop* The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community at CHI has expanded its scope in recent years to study technology use in under-served, under-represented, and under-resourced regions around the world. This area of work is identified (not without debate) at CHI as HCI4D*, where the ‘D’ is used for highlighting the ‘developing world’ context where much of this work has taken place. To work around the limitations imposed by this term, we invite individuals who identify themselves as HCI4D researchers/practitioners, *and also more broadly* – those who are keen to pursue research and practice in these under-served, under-represented, and/or under-resourced contexts. Nearly a decade ago, at CHI 2007, the first workshop on user-centered design and international development was held – also in San Jose. Since then, we have seen an explosion of work in this area. This has been accompanied by a growth of sophistication in understanding, methods, approaches, and techniques towards devising solutions to problems seemingly intractable due to logistical and methodological challenges. As the area has grown, it has understandably become harder for us to stay connected with the expanding scope of research and practice and the increasing number of people involved. While technological and methodological advances are critical for further development of our field, so too is it important for us to stay connected. We often work in relatively isolated contexts, geographically dispersed across the globe, and rarely find the opportunity to associate with the larger community even though we know this could be helpful. Why work across borders? Though every country and context is unique, and much of our work aims to design for “situatedness”, there are lessons to be learned across borders as well. Questions we would like to ask include: What are common themes that tie together different resource-constrained contexts? For instance, could a maternal health project in India benefit from lessons learned from a project in Kenya and vice versa? How can we – as a community – work within countries *and* across them as well? The primary objective of this event is to bring together HCI voices from across the globe at one venue as they develop themes of common interests and work on potential projects/proposals they can pursue together as collaborators. Our secondary, and larger, objective however is to launch a series of such workshops that will help advance towards a richer, stronger, and a fundamentally more cohesive community overall. ** Unpacking the term HCI4D will be one of the undertakings of this workshop. Though debated, the term helps us refer to the area that applies what we know about human-centered processes and technology design to work that aspires towards economic, social, and human development. * *Participation* Our workshop will take place over two days – *7th/8th May 2016* – and solicit participation from HCI researchers and practitioners across the globe who work with under-served, under-represented, and/or under-resourced communities. We invite participants keen to explore collaborations across borders and geographies. We define “borders” and “geographies” broadly to include both national boundaries and more localized boundaries such as those between cities or different groups within a country. Research areas of focus can be diverse, including but not limited to education, healthcare, civic engagement, mobile banking, etc. We welcome all methodological and ideological leanings. Examples of topics/themes of interest might include, among others: - Leveraging participatory design and co-design approaches - Factoring cultural sensitivities in the design of new technologies - Designing to accommodate power differentials - Devising innovative techniques for engaging users - Designing for sustainability Examples of projects might include, among others: - Study of Facebook use and gender roles in South Africa vs. in Namibia - Design of mobile-based reporting systems for targeted African-American and impoverished citizens to report police brutality in Atlanta (GA), Minneapolis (MN), and New York (NY) - Design of mobile media for maternal and newborn health in India and Pakistan - Study of IVR use to provide information on agricultural practices in Peru and Ethiopia - Development of mobile technology-based supports for prenatal care among the Ngabe-Bugle and the Embera in Panama *Submissions* Please submit a proposal (2-4 pages in the CHI Extended Abstracts <http://www.sigchi.org/publications/chipubform/sigchi-extended-abstracts-for…> format) by *21st December 2015* for early notification of acceptance (by 31st December) and *15th January 2016* for notification by *19th February*. Submissions should discuss a plan or intent to collaborate ‘across borders’, articulating an area of work and research questions of interest. If these include potential projects and collaborators, even better! Submissions can be crafted by *a set* of authors (who may like to meet and discuss at the workshop), or by a smaller group/individual seeking additional team members. If additional collaborators are sought, submissions should describe desired expertise/profiles/locations. These submissions will seed small group discussions and informal presentations at the workshop. All submissions will be reviewed by the organizers and selected according to their potential to contribute to the workshop’s goals and foster discussion. Accepted submissions will be available on our workshop website at least two weeks before the conference to allow participants to prepare. In addition, organizers may consider the publication of revised versions of accepted papers as part of a special issue in a related journal. Please send submissions to hci4d.across.borders(a)gmail.com. All deadlines will be observed at 11.59pm AoE <http://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/aoe>. *Bursaries* CHI workshop guidelines require that at least one author of each accepted submission attend and that each (physical) participant be registered for the workshop and one day of the conference. If these constraints become limiting, please contact us so that workarounds might be considered. We are working on obtaining funding to pay travel expenses (or at least a portion thereof) for attendees in need. So if you do work in this area and are hesitating because you believe that obtaining travel money will be difficult to impossible, please go ahead and submit anyway. We will work with you to try and fund (or partially fund) your travel. *Virtual Participation* We understand that not everyone who wishes to participate (with or without a submission) will be able to attend physically, be it due to financial or other constraints. We invite you to express an interest to participate (via email) and we will work with you to accommodate you on our ‘virtual track’ where you will also have the chance to work with a mentor and on a team. *Organizers* Neha Kumar, Georgia Tech, co-chair (USA) Susan Dray, Dray & Associates, co-chair (USA) Andrew Dearden, Sheffield Hallam University (UK) Nicola Dell, Cornell Tech (USA) Melissa Densmore, University of Cape Town (South Africa) Brian DeRenzi, University of Cape Town (South Africa) Beki Grinter, Georgia Tech (USA) Zhengjie Liu, Dalian Maritime University (China) Mario A. Moreno Rocha, Universidad Tecnologica de la Mixteca (Mexico) Eunice Sari, University of Western Australia (Australia) Bill Thies, Microsoft Research, India (India) Indrani Medhi Thies, Microsoft Reearch, India (India) William Tucker, University of the Western Cape (South Africa) Elba Valderrama Bahamondez, Universidad Technologia de Panama (Panama) Susan Wyche, Michigan State University (USA) *Contact* For more details, please check the workshop website: https://hci4dacrossborders.wordpress.com/ Email us your questions at: hci4d.across.borders(a)gmail.com

1 0