March 2017 - change - Mailing Lists

TASCHA is hiring a Senior Research Scientist
by Melody Clark 03 Apr '17

03 Apr '17

Hello! Good news - TASCHA is hiring! We are currently seeking a Senior Research Scientist. Please see the job description below. If this sounds like you, please apply. And please feel free to distribute to your networks widely. Thank you, Melody Are you interested in creating transformation in public libraries? Do your ideas about how technology can be used for social change keep you up at night? Are you looking for an opportunity to work with an interdisciplinary group of people on issues that will impact both the library and international development fields? The Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA)<http://tascha.uw.edu/> at the University of Washington Information School<https://ischool.uw.edu/> is expanding our team. We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Research Scientist who is passionate about research on public libraries, information and communication technologies (ICTs), and international development. The ideal candidate is curious, a risk-taker, thrives in a collaborative environment and working with open practices, and is committed to making a difference by advancing practice and policy, in addition to generating new knowledge. As our new Senior Research Scientist, you'll have the unique opportunity to contribute to an exciting and evolving research agenda about public libraries, ICTs, and international development. In addition to working on center-wide priorities, we look forward to your fresh ideas and research interests that you'll be able to contribute and pursue. If this is you, please apply here<https://uwhires.admin.washington.edu/eng/candidates/default.cfm?szCategory=…>. And by all means, please share through your networks. Job description: Research leadership * Contribute to setting strategic research direction and priorities in collaboration with Director and other principal and senior scientists and faculty in TASCHA. * Lead and collaborate on research projects assigned by the Director, including overseeing the work of other TASCHA and iSchool employees and students. * Contribute regularly to the research outputs of the Center * Conduct both desk and field research, as appropriate to specific research tasks * Prepare drafts and final reports of research projects for publication; disseminate research publications locally and internationally in a variety of formats * Maintain an active digital media presence, exhibiting thought leadership on issues of concern to TASCHA * Produce policy and practitioner impact through engagement with appropriate stakeholders * Collaborate on project planning and project administration and assume responsibility for the administrative duties relating to the research activities undertaken * Participate in an active communications and engagement strategy. * Identify venues to promote TASCHA to both the University community and external stakeholders. Research development * Assist the Director in liaising with potential donors and collaborators for the Center * Develop grant proposals, as agreed upon with the Director, in collaboration with other faculty and research staff and/or collaborators at other institutions Other * Attend iSchool and University meetings, retreats and planning days as appropriate. * Participate in other iSchool community projects and activities as appropriate Minimum Requirements * PhD in Library and Information Science or related field * Demonstrated record of scholarship * Demonstrated experience with a range of qualitative, quantitative and experimental research methods * Demonstrated experience or strong interest in conducting field work in developing countries * Demonstrated familiarity with public libraries, international development, and/or information and communication technologies * Demonstrated success in working with diverse populations * Strong research promise Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as license/certification/registration. Desired Qualifications * Familiarity with public library related research and innovation * Familiarity with technologies used in ICTD interventions * Substantial research or living experience in a developing country Click here for more information and to apply for this opportunity<https://uwhires.admin.washington.edu/eng/candidates/default.cfm?szCategory=…>. -- Melody Clark Communications Manager 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/>

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Job opening for Research Coordinator for Digital Financial Services Research Group at University of Washington
by Richard Anderson 28 Mar '17

28 Mar '17

CSE has a job opening for a Research Coordinator in the Digital Financial Services group, full-time, reporting to Professor Richard Anderson. The job is posted on the Employment at UW web page: http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/jobs/index.html Select "FIND A JOB", and then enter Requisition 143800. RESEARCH COORDINATOR Req #: 143800 Department: COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING Job Location: Seattle Campus Posting Date: 03/28/2017 Closing Info: Open Until Filled Salary: Salary and benefits are competitive. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience. Notes: As a UW employee, you will enjoy generous benefits and work/life programs. For a complete description of our benefits for this position, please visit our website, click here.<http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/benefits/forms/ben-summaries/prostaff.pdf> The University of Washington (UW) is proud to be one of the nation's premier educational and research institutions. Our people are the most important asset in our pursuit of achieving excellence in education, research, and community service. Our staff not only enjoys outstanding benefits and professional growth opportunities, but also an environment noted for diversity, community involvement, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty. The Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering has an outstanding opportunity for an independent, and well-organized contributor, who is also a proficient writer, to serve as Research Coordinator in its Digital Financial Services Research Group. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DFS strives to dramatically improve the efficiency, scalability, security and cost of mobile banking solutions for people in some of the poorest countries in the world. As Research Coordinator, you will be a vital team member in a multidisciplinary effort led by Professor Richard Anderson, which includes Professors Yoshi Kohno, Franziska Roesner, and Kurtis Heimerl in Computer Science & Engineering, and other campus and external experts. You will support group members in their work to address specific challenges that impede the introduction and wide-scale deployment of financial products, which include fraud and cyber-attacks, network failures, the proximity payments user experience, managing identity and on-boarding, the lack of analytics for product development and risk scoring, agent management, and financial education for end users. Specifically, you will be responsible for: technical writing, group coordination/management, managing external partnerships, supporting evaluation studies, and creating a communication strategy. This position will not be responsible for financial tracking or budgets. Communication/Technical Writing * Create and oversee the DFS communications strategy. Develop and implement goals, priorities, and approaches that will showcase the group's work and promote its project results. * Author first draft content, manage revisions and produce final documents consistent with the project's strategic vision. Work with team members to research information. Examples of documents include the following: o Project state research briefs and research reports to be shared with funding agencies o Progress, administrative and final reports for funding agencies o Grant proposals o Presentations and manuscripts for peer-review publication * Manage writing projects that involve multiple authors or content experts. * Play a significant role in preparing and copy editing grant applications and submissions, including literature reviews, background and methodological content, budget justifications, grant figures and tables, and grant submission forms. * Maintain the group's website, update content, write new content, and solicit submissions from others. Research Group Coordination/Management * Provide overall coordination of the research team. Ensure effective and efficient team functioning (e.g. develop a system for tracking project milestones, planned deliverable dates, etc.). * Manage team communication, sharing regular study updates. * Coordinate ongoing and as-needed research team meetings to review progress. Create and maintain meeting documentation. * Seek innovative ways to develop and implement process changes within the team. * Prepare human subjects applications for product testing; ensure that the DFS research and products are consistent with ethical standards and other regulations. * Develop forms, questionnaires, and procedures for collecting and summarizing data observations. External & Third-Party Relations * Act as a liaison between the DFS group, program partners, research study sites, funding agencies, and other relevant administrative departments and agencies. * Maintain communications with external partners. * Track research of external researchers and organizations that is relevant to the group's activities and ensure timely feedback to DFS members. REQUIREMENTS: Bachelor's degree in international development, economics, public policy, or related area AND at least two years of applicable experience. Excellent verbal and written communication skills; capable of producing high-quality written documents under tight deadlines. Demonstrated experience of diverse writing/editing/analysis experience in communications, marketing, grant writing, and copywriting in a technical field. Strong project management skills; demonstrated success managing multiple concurrent multi-person projects. Computer proficiency, with intermediate or higher skills in MS Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, HTML and Google docs. Must be self-motivated with a positive attitude and demonstrate both intellectual curiosity and a strong commitment to the mission of CSE and the University. Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration. DESIRED: Master's degree in international development, economics, public policy, or related area. CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT: The position may involve international travel, possibly one or two international trips per year. Appointment to this position is contingent upon obtaining satisfactory results from a criminal background check Application Process: The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Criminal Conviction History, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select "Apply to this position". Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your "My Jobs" page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed. <http://green.washington.edu/>[The University of Washington is a leader in environmental stewardship & sustainability, and committed to becoming climate neutral.]<http://green.washington.edu/><http://green.washington.edu/>The University of Washington is a leader in environmental stewardship & sustainability<http://f2.washington.edu/oess/>, and committed to becoming climate neutral. The University of Washington is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer.<https://ap.washington.edu/eoaa/equal-opportunity-statement-for-employment> To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 / 206-543-6452 (tty) or dso(a)uw.edu<mailto:dso@uw.edu>.

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Tomorrow at Change: Richard Anderson - Update from the Digital Financial Services Research Group
by Trevor Perrier 27 Mar '17

27 Mar '17

Hi All, I'd like to welcome everyone back for the spring quarter and to our first Change Seminar tomorrow. As usual, Change will be held at 12pm in CSE 203. This week Richard Anderson will be giving an update on the work Digital Financial Services <http://dfs.cs.washington.edu/> group has been doing over the last year. *What: *An update on the work of the UW Digital Financial Services Research Group *Who: *Richard Anderson *When: *12pm Tuesday March 28 in CSE 203 *Abstract* In 2016, we established the Digital Financial Services Research Group at University of Washington to investigate the technological challenges in improving access to financial services for the world’s poor and to promote a global research community at the intersection of Computing for Development and Financial Services. The technological challenges for financial services include managing digital identities, ease of use of proximity payments, awareness and understanding of digital services, robustness of infrastructure, and protecting services from fraud and cyber-attacks. In this talk, I will give an update on the accomplishments in the first year of the project in the areas of computer security, consumer education, and the Android device eco-system, introduce the UW-Pesa demo lab, and talk about the founding of a parallel research group at Information Technology University (ITU) in Lahore, Pakistan. I will also identify a number of technology areas that are ripe for exploration to support this area of work.

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Spring Break Change Talk - Ammar Jaffri, Tuesday, March 21, noon, CSE 203
by Richard Anderson 20 Mar '17

20 Mar '17

We will be having a special change talk on Tuesday. Ammar Jaffri, Head of Pakistan Information Security Association Fast shifting to Mobile based Financial Systems in developing world The talk will consist of three parts: Part 1 - History of Financial Systems & Frauds, Part 2 - From Traditional Financial Systems To Digital Financial Services, Part 3 - Way Forward... Questions / Discussion. CSE 203 Tuesday, March 21, noon.

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Fwd: Ashesi's Annual Trip to Ghana
by Alan Borning 18 Mar '17

18 Mar '17

Hi all - this is an interesting opportunity for folks interested in Ashesi! cheers, Alan ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Natalie Davis <ndavis(a)ashesi.org> Date: Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 12:57 PM Subject: Ashesi's Annual Trip to Ghana To: "borning(a)cs.washington.edu" <borning(a)cs.washington.edu> Hi Alan, I'm reaching out from Ashesi University Foundation; years ago, you helped Ashesi develop its Computer Science program and it has been thriving ever since. Our CS graduates have gone on to work as software engineers at major companies, create their own tech startups, and even establish a coding school for youth in Accra. I’d like to connect about how you might be able to help us get the word out about our upcoming Annual Trip to Ghana <http://ashesi.org/get-involved/visit-campus/> in October by sharing it with those in your network that may be interested in seeing global CS education up close and, more generally, in higher education in Africa. Please feel welcome to pass this email along to anyone that comes to mind and I will be happy to answer any questions that they may have. Of course, if you are interested in going on the trip this year we would love to have you join us as well! Kind regards, Natalie *Natalie Davis* *Program Assistant* | *Ashesi University Foundation* <http://www.ashesi.org/> office: 206.545.6988 <(206)%20545-6988> *Join our Annual Trip to Ghana: October 7-15, 2017 <http://www.ashesi.org/get-involved/visit-campus>* Ethical Leadership | Innovative Thinking | A New Africa *Ashesi University Foundation mobilizes support for Ashesi University in Ghana*

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ICTD 2017 revised call for papers
by Richard Anderson 14 Mar '17

14 Mar '17

Attached is a revised call for papers for the ICTD 2017 Conference, which will be held in Lahore, Pakistan. The full paper submission deadline is May 15, 2017. Please consider submitting a paper to this exciting event. - Richard Anderson and Carleen Maitland, ICTD 2017 Program Committee Co-Chairs International Conference on Communication Technologies and Development Lahore, Pakistan | 16-19 November 2017 Call for Papers and Notes<http://ictd2017.itu.edu.pk/calls-for-paper-and-notes/> The ninth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2017), to be hosted at the Information Technology University from November 16-19, 2017, invites you to submit Full Papers and Notes. Held in cooperation with ACM SIGCAS, ICTD2017 will provide an international forum for scholarly researchers to explore the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social, political, and economic development. The ICTD conferences have been taking place approximately every 18 months since 2006. Important dates May 15, 2017: Deadline for submission of Full Papers July 1, 2017: Notification of acceptances for Full Papers July 14, 2017 (tentative): Deadline for submission of Notes September 1, 2017 (tentative): Notification of acceptances for Notes September 15, 2017 (tentative): Camera-ready Full Papers and Notes due All submission are due 11:59 pm UTC. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) continually become more pervasive in the lives of people around the world. With increasing relevance, ICTs are used in daily life from markets to health care, education to governance, family life to artistic expression. Diverse groups across the world interact with, are affected by, and can shape the design of these technologies. The ICTD conference provides a forum for analyzing, critiquing and refining the ways in which individuals, communities and societies interact with and make use of these tools and platforms. There are multidisciplinary challenges associated with the engineering, application and adoption of ICTs in developing regions and/or for development, with implications for design, policy, and practice. For the purposes of this conference, the term "ICT" comprises electronic technologies for information processing and communication, as well as systems, interventions, and platforms that are built on such technologies. "Development" includes, but is not restricted to, poverty alleviation, education, agriculture, healthcare, general communication, gender equality, governance, infrastructure, environment and sustainable livelihoods. The conference program will reflect the multidisciplinary nature of ICTD research, with anticipated contributions from fields including (but not limited to) anthropology, computer science, communication, design, economics, electrical engineering, geography, human-computer interaction, information science, information systems, political science, public health, and sociology. Full Papers * An ICTD Full Paper, which is up to 10 pages in the ACM two-column format (including figures and tables but excluding references), must make a new research contribution and provide complete and substantial support for its results and conclusions. Accepted papers typically represent a major advance for the field of ICTD. Full Papers will be evaluated via double-blind peer review by a multidisciplinary panel of at least three readers, one of whom will come from outside the paper's disciplinary domain in order to ensure broad readability. Accepted Full Papers will be presented as oral presentations at the conference. * Full Papers will be evaluated according to their novel research contribution, methodological soundness, theoretical framing and reference to related work, quality of analysis, and quality of writing and presentation. Manuscripts considering novel designs, new technologies, project assessments, policy analyses, impact studies, theoretical contributions, social issues around ICT and development, and so forth will be considered. Well-analyzed negative results from which generalizable conclusions can be drawn are also sought. Authors are encouraged (but not required) to address the diversity of approaches in ICTD research by providing context, implications, and actionable guidance to researchers and practitioners beyond the authors' primary domains. Full Papers typically present mature work whereas Notes (see below) are used for presenting preliminary research that is still work-in-progress. * All accepted Full Papers will be archived in the ACM Digital Library. * See additional specifications under "All Submissions" below. Notes * With a shorter 4-page limit (excluding references), Notes are intended to introduce work-in-progress that may be published later in a journal, as well as to document shorter project write-ups. An ICTD Note is likely to have a more focused and succinct research contribution to the ICTD field than Full Papers. For example, Notes on novel ICTD systems may not cover the entire design of the system but may instead go into depth in specific areas (e.g., how the system was evaluated with real users or how the formative work to create the system was conducted). Notes are also not expected to include a discussion of related work that is as broad and complete as that of a submission to the Full Papers venue. Accepted Notes will be presented as poster presentations at the conference. * Notes will be evaluated by at least two multidisciplinary reviewers in a double-blind fashion and will be assessed according to their research contribution, methodological soundness, quality of analysis, and quality of writing, and presentation. Manuscripts considering novel designs, new technologies, project assessments, policy analyses, impact studies, theoretical contributions, social issues around ICT and development, and so forth will be considered. However Notes need not necessarily be as comprehensive, novel, or generalizable as Full Papers. * All accepted Notes will be made available in the ACM Digital Library. Notes authors will be invited to present a poster. * See additional specifications under "All Submissions" below. All Submissions * Only original, unpublished, research papers in English will be considered. Full Papers and Notes must use the ACM templates<http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates> (LaTeX and Word), and must be no longer than 10 pages and 4 pages respectively. (The main text, figures, tables, footnotes, etc. excluding references must fit within these page limits.) Additional material may be included in an Appendix, but the text within the page limits must read as a standalone work. Submissions longer than the page limits, not in the template format, not related to the conference themes, and/or not meeting a minimum bar of academic research writing will be rejected without full review. * For each accepted Full Paper and Note, at least one of the authors will be required to register and present it at ICTD2017. If not, the submission will not be published in the final proceedings. For Full Papers, see the ACM's copyright policies and options<http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy/>. Copyright for Notes will be retained by the authors. * Submitted Full Papers and Notes must not include names or other information that would identify the authors. * Note that since the Full Paper and Notes submission review cycles will be sequential; it will be possible to revise, shorten, and resubmit elements of promising but non-selected Full Papers in time for reconsideration in the separate Notes review round. However, please note, the time between the full paper notification date and Notes deadline is fairly short. For more information, see http://ictd2017.itu.edu.pk/ or email Richard Anderson at anderson(a)cs.washington.edu<mailto:anderson@cs.washington.edu>. For questions or concerns regarding security in Pakistan, please contact Carleen Maitland at cmaitland(a)ist.psu.edu<mailto:cmaitland@ist.psu.edu?subject=ICTD2017%20> . General Conference Chair Umar Saif, Information Technology University, Lahore Program Committee Chairs Richard Anderson, University of Washington Carleen Maitland, Penn State University Notes Chairs Neha Kumar, Georgia Institute of Technology Agha Ali Raza, Information Technology University, Lahore Open Session Chairs Melissa Densmore, University of Cape Town Mustafa Naseem, University of Colorado Boulder Local Arrangement Chairs Amna Batool, Information Technology University, Lahore Mustafa Naseem, University of Colorado Boulder Agha Ali Raza, Information Technology University, Lahore ICTD Steering Committee Francois Bar, University of Southern California Michael Best, United Nations University / Georgia Institute of Technology Ken Keniston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Balaji Parthasarathy, International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore Krithi Ramamritham, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay AnnaLee Saxenian, University of California, Berkeley Kentaro Toyama, University of Michigan Ernest Wilson, University of Southern California Senior Program Committee Elizabeth Belding UC Santa Barbara Michael Best UNU / Georgia Tech Josh Blumenstock UC Berkeley Tim Brown Carnegie Mellon Rwanda Jenna Burrell UC Berkeley Chris Coward University of Washington Ed Cutrell Microsoft Research Melissa Densmore University of Cape Town Vanessa Frias-Martinez University of Maryland Heather Horst RMIT University Aditya Johri George Mason University Ayorkor Korsah Asheshi University Rich Ling NTU Singapore Judith Mariscal CIDE, Mexico Jacki O'Niell Microsoft Research India Doug Oard University of Maryland Joyojeet Pal University of Michigan Tapan Parikh Cornell Nimmi Rangaswamy Xerox Research Center India Aaditeshwar Seth IIT Delhi Araba Sey University of Washington Janaki Srinivasan IIIT Bangalore Lakshmi Subramanian New York University Bill Thies Microsoft Research India Kentaro Toyama University of Michigan Bill Tucker University of the Western Cape Komminist Weldemarian IBM Kenya

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UW Social Computing Reading Group: Spring Quarter 2017 Tuesdays 2-3 Loc. TBD
by Amirah Majid 10 Mar '17

10 Mar '17

Thank you for participating the SCRG poll. Further emails related to the reading group will be posted to the group list. If you will be joining us this Spring, Tuesdays 2 - 3 please contact one of the list administrators for an invite to join the Google Group list, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/uw-scrg. We will post updates on location and links to the readings spreadsheets there. David McDonald: dwmcphd(a)gmail.com Benjamin Mako Hill: makohill(a)uw.edu Mark Zachry: markzachry(a)gmail.com Amirah Majid: amirah(a)uw.edu Thanks again! Amirah *A. M. Majidأميرة ماجد‬‎* PhD student: multi-cultural computing & refugee informatics Information School, University of Washington Seattle USA https://users.resist.ca/~amirah/ *"...beware of my partisanship, my mistakes of fact, and the distortion **inevitably caused by my having seen only one corner of events." **Homage to Catalonia (1938), **George Orwell* On Thu, Mar 2, 2017 at 5:49 PM, Amirah Majid <amirah(a)uw.edu> wrote: > The UW Social Computing Reading Group (SCRG) is an interdisciplinary > reading group welcoming faculty and students from a variety of departments > including the Information School, HCDE, Communications, and Computer > Science. We think about social computing from many, sometimes less popular, > angles. We explore the kinds of research being done and needing to be done. > If you think about these things we would love for you to join us! > > Each week members select a paper, share it electronically with the list, > and then we meet to discuss. We approach readings with openness and > curiosity, though we do not shy away from examining flaws and problematic > issues of research. The SCRG is dynamic, fun, supportive, and a great way > to encounter a wide range of social computing literature. This reading > group is useful for newer scholars as well as seasoned experts. > > The SCRG has been meeting for over six years. Each quarter we use a poll > to select the best day and time. If you would like to join us please follow > the link below to the, 'SCRG Meetings: Spring 2017', WhenIsGood Poll > <http://whenisgood.net/scrg_spring2017> and paint over all the times that > are good for you. The one hour time with the most votes will become the > weekly meeting time for spring quarter. Location TBD but will most likely > be in either Sieg, MGH, or Comm. > > http://whenisgood.net/scrg_spring2017 > > > Generally the way reading group works is this: > 1. Pick a date. > 2. Pick a reading that is (arguably) something related to Social > Computing. This is a flexible concept and often the reading is new to all > of us, including the person who selected it. That can make for as good of > a discussion as selecting key authors in the field. During the regular > academic year we generally select shorter conference or journal articles. > During the summer, when people often have more free time, we sometimes > tackle longer or more challenging pieces. Occasionally we even discuss a > film or TV episode, after having independently viewed it. > 3. Enter the citation with a link in our coordination spreadsheet. > 4. Send an email, and ideally an attached copy of the paper, about 1 week > in advance of the session. > 5. Help lead us in a discussion about the paper. Remember you are in a > room full of bright, engaged people. Leading the discussion is not the hard > part, stopping it often is! > > Looking forward to seeing you all in the coming weeks! > > Amirah Majid > > > *A. M. Majidأميرة ماجد‬‎* > PhD student: multi-cultural computing & refugee informatics > Information School, University of Washington Seattle USA > https://users.resist.ca/~amirah/ > > *"...beware of my partisanship, my mistakes of fact, and the distortion **inevitably > caused by my having seen only one corner of events." **Homage to > Catalonia (1938), **George Orwell* >

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Last Call: UW Social Computing Reading Group
by Amirah Majid 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

Hi there! We are going to close the poll really soon for finding the SCRG next quarter meeting day and time. Please cast your vote ASAP! SCRG Meetings: Spring 2017', WhenIsGood Poll <http://whenisgood.net/scrg_spring2017> If you already have thank you! We will be posting the results this weekend. Some folks have asked about paper types/topics we read. Papers are drawn from a variety of disciplines and incorporate lots of approaches but center on social computing topics. We tend towards shorter papers during the academic year, such as papers from the CHI or CSCW conferences, and sometimes longer papers or book chapters in the summer. The ACM Digital Library is a handy database if you want to explore but please don't feel that you are limited to that! http://dl.acm.org Thanks again! Amirah *A. M. Majidأميرة ماجد‬‎* PhD student: multi-cultural computing & refugee informatics Information School, University of Washington Seattle USA https://users.resist.ca/~amirah/ *"...beware of my partisanship, my mistakes of fact, and the distortion **inevitably caused by my having seen only one corner of events." **Homage to Catalonia (1938), **George Orwell* On Thu, Mar 2, 2017 at 5:49 PM, Amirah Majid <amirah(a)uw.edu> wrote: > The UW Social Computing Reading Group (SCRG) is an interdisciplinary > reading group welcoming faculty and students from a variety of departments > including the Information School, HCDE, Communications, and Computer > Science. We think about social computing from many, sometimes less popular, > angles. We explore the kinds of research being done and needing to be done. > If you think about these things we would love for you to join us! > > Each week members select a paper, share it electronically with the list, > and then we meet to discuss. We approach readings with openness and > curiosity, though we do not shy away from examining flaws and problematic > issues of research. The SCRG is dynamic, fun, supportive, and a great way > to encounter a wide range of social computing literature. This reading > group is useful for newer scholars as well as seasoned experts. > > The SCRG has been meeting for over six years. Each quarter we use a poll > to select the best day and time. If you would like to join us please follow > the link below to the, 'SCRG Meetings: Spring 2017', WhenIsGood Poll > <http://whenisgood.net/scrg_spring2017> and paint over all the times that > are good for you. The one hour time with the most votes will become the > weekly meeting time for spring quarter. Location TBD but will most likely > be in either Sieg, MGH, or Comm. > > http://whenisgood.net/scrg_spring2017 > > > Generally the way reading group works is this: > 1. Pick a date. > 2. Pick a reading that is (arguably) something related to Social > Computing. This is a flexible concept and often the reading is new to all > of us, including the person who selected it. That can make for as good of > a discussion as selecting key authors in the field. During the regular > academic year we generally select shorter conference or journal articles. > During the summer, when people often have more free time, we sometimes > tackle longer or more challenging pieces. Occasionally we even discuss a > film or TV episode, after having independently viewed it. > 3. Enter the citation with a link in our coordination spreadsheet. > 4. Send an email, and ideally an attached copy of the paper, about 1 week > in advance of the session. > 5. Help lead us in a discussion about the paper. Remember you are in a > room full of bright, engaged people. Leading the discussion is not the hard > part, stopping it often is! > > Looking forward to seeing you all in the coming weeks! > > Amirah Majid > > > *A. M. Majidأميرة ماجد‬‎* > PhD student: multi-cultural computing & refugee informatics > Information School, University of Washington Seattle USA > https://users.resist.ca/~amirah/ > > *"...beware of my partisanship, my mistakes of fact, and the distortion **inevitably > caused by my having seen only one corner of events." **Homage to > Catalonia (1938), **George Orwell* >

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Fwd: [TIER] [REGISTRATION OPENED] EAI International Conference on Innovations and Interdisciplinary Solutions
by Matt Johnson 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

This conference may be of interest to the change community! Cheers, -mj -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [TIER] [REGISTRATION OPENED] EAI International Conference on Innovations and Interdisciplinary Solutions Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2017 11:00:39 -0500 From: Assane Gueye <assane.gueye(a)gmail.com> To: tier(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu [Apologizes for multiple postings] Dear Colleagues, We are happy to announce that registrations are opened for the First */EAI International Conference on Innovations and Interdisciplinary Solutions for Underserved Areas, /**/April 11-12, 2017 in Dakar, Senegal./* Please goto the registration webpage: http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/registration <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/registration> * * *Note*: if you are registering from/within the African continent, you are eligible for a discount. Please contact the conference manager @: lenka.laukova(a)eai.eu <http://eai.eu/>. Please find below some highlights for the conference: *Workshop* *InterSol2017 will be co-located with the 6^th Annual CNRIA Workshop.* The CNRIA conference is a highly interactive conference that enables an effective interchange of results and ideas among researchers, industry, and product developers. .Read more… <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/cnria> * * *Special Session* *Special Session on **Development Innovation Learning and Innovation in Learning**.* Development discourse emerged in the 1940s alongside the idea of innovation. Innovation meant technology transfer from particularly Western countries to non-Western countries and Africa in particular. Since then learning approaches have been developed to support the diffusion of foreign technologies. Read more… <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/news> * * *Roundtable* InterSol2017 will offer a *roundtable that brings together researchers and socio-economic actors* in underserved areas to exchange and enable interdisciplinary research projects. This roundtable is aimed at community organizations, farmers’ and fishermen’s associations, women’s NGO as well as inventors, researchers and students interested in interdisciplinary research projects targeting underserved areas. Read more… <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/home> * * *Poster Session* *PhD Poster Session* We invite PhD students to submit extended abstract of their research for poster presentation during the InterSol2017 Conference. This will offer a unique opportunity for students to share their work with an international audience. Read more… <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/cf-posters>* * * * *Keynote Speakers* *InterSol2017 is also a panel of outstanding keynote speakers including (see details <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/keynotes>):* * *Prof. Eric A. Brewer* <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/keynotes>*:* Professor of Computer Science, UC Berkeley, VP Infrastructure, Google * *Dr Abdella Battou* <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/keynotes>*: *Division Chief, Advanced Network Technologies, National Institute of Standards and Technology * *Prof. Sanjay Misra* <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/keynotes>: Professor of Computer Engineering at Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria * *Dr. Arame Tall <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/keynotes>*: GFCS Regional Coordinator for Africa, Dakar, Senegal * * * *Prof. Mammo Muchie <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/keynotes>:** *Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa * * *Social Program* *InterSol is also a social program guided by the Senegalese “Teranga” (hospitality) (see details <http://interdisciplinarysolutions.org/2017/show/program-preliminary>):* * *Welcome mini-Cocktail at the hall of Novotel Hotel,* Monday, April 10, 2017, 6:30pm: * *Tour at the historic Goree Island followed by reception dinner,* Tuesday, April 11, 2017, 4pm: * *Visit at the "**Monument de la Renaissance Africaine", *Tuesday, April 12, 2017, 5:30pm

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Change Wednesday 3:30 - Jacki O'Neill: Financial Capability
by Trevor Perrier 06 Mar '17

06 Mar '17

As this is the last week of the quarter there will be no Change Seminar on Tuesday. However, we are excited to be hosting Jacki O'Neill <https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/jaoneil/> from Microsoft Research India on Wednesday. Jacki works with the Technology for Emerging Markets <https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/group/technology-for-emerging-mark…> group and will joining us to talk about her ethnographic work on financial services for low income communities in India. *What: *Accessible financial services for low income communities *Who: *Jacki O'Neill *When: *Wednesday 3:30pm *Where: *CSE 691 *Abstract:* In this presentation, I will describe the findings of an ethnographic study which set out to examine the impact of using mobile money, rather than cash, to make loan payments in a low income setting. The setting in question involves a social enterprise, Three Wheels United (TWU), which helps auto-rickshaw drivers take out loans with the bank to buy their auto-rickshaws. TWU collects loan payments from drivers on a daily and weekly basis since drivers earn a low, unpredictable, daily wage primarily in cash and are therefore rarely able to save up enough to make monthly loan payments. Payments are made through cash or Airtel Money, providing a unique opportunity to compare the two systems in action, and TWU wanted to understand the implications of scaling up the Airtel Money payments as a route to streamlining their operations. The problem was initially specified as one of payment mechanism, however our study revealed that there is an additional loan management problem irrespective of whether drivers pay by cash or Airtel Money. Whilst we did not find opportunities to intervene around the payment mechanism, we identified a clear opportunity to help drivers and collectors manage their loans. To this end we are using an iterative user-centred design process to build an intermediated smart-phone app to be used by collectors *with* drivers to help manage their loans and build financial capability. The idea is to provide more information, combined with motivators, nudges and social competition to help make the impact of today’s decision on the loan more salient. I will describe how we are currently wrestling with the competing demands of flexibility vs. simplicity and usability. I will end with a few reflections on mobile money as a route to financial inclusion. *Bio:* Dr Jacki O’Neill is an experienced Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher. She uses ethnomethodologically-informed ethnography to inspire the design of innovative technologies, which aim to be both useful and usable since they take into account users situated practices. She joined the Technologies for Emerging Markets (TEM) area at Microsoft Research India in Jan 2014. She was previously a Principal Scientist and Ethnography Champion for Xerox’s Innovation Group, based at Xerox Research Centre Europe. She is passionate about the design of technologies which capitalize on people’s skills and capabilities, whether at work, at home, for health, education or play.

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