February 2018 - change - Mailing Lists

Change Seminar on 2/27 (tomorrow) cancelled
by Esther Jang 26 Feb '18

26 Feb '18

Change will not be meeting tomorrow on account of a last minute speaker reschedule. See you next week!

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Fwd: [jsde] Paul Christian -- Joint Seminar in Development Economics on Monday, February 26
by Kurtis Heimerl 20 Feb '18

20 Feb '18

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Brian Dillon <bdillon2(a)uw.edu> Date: Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 3:03 PM Subject: [jsde] Paul Christian -- Joint Seminar in Development Economics on Monday, February 26 To: jsde(a)u.washington.edu Please join us *Monday, February 26*, for the Joint Seminar in Development Economics with Paul Christian from the World Bank. The seminar is from *11:00am - 12:30pm in Savery 410*. Title and abstract below, and the paper is attached. We hope to see you there! ______________________________________________ *Revisiting the Effect of Food Aid on Conflict: A Methodological Caution* Paul Christian and Christopher B. Barrett A popular identification strategy in non-experimental panel data uses instrumental variables constructed by interacting exogenous but potentially spurious time series or spatial variables with endogenous exposure variables to generate identifying variation through assumptions like those of differences-in-differences estimators. Revisiting a celebrated study linking food aid and conflict shows that this strategy is susceptible to bias arising from spurious trends. Re-randomization and Monte Carlo simulations show that the strategy identifies a spurious relationship even when the true effect could be non-causal or causal in the opposite direction, invalidating the claim that aid causes conflict and providing a caution for similar strategies. -- Brian Dillon Assistant Professor Evans School of Public Policy and Governance University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195 bdillon2(a)uw.edu +1 206.221.4601 <(206)%20221-4601> *All emails sent to or from this address are subject to public records requests under State of Washington law.* _______________________________________________ jsde mailing list jsde(a)u.washington.edu http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/jsde

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2/20 Change Seminar: Frank Schott, NetHope
by Kushal Shah 20 Feb '18

20 Feb '18

Hello Everyone, Please join us for the Change Seminar this week on *Tuesday* 2/20/2018 in *EEB 003*. *Who*: Frank Schott, Vice President, Global Programs at Nethope <http://nethope.org/> *What*: Digital Innovations for Disaster Relief *When*: Tuesday, Feb 20th, 12-1 PM *Where*: EEB 003 *Bio:* Frank is a UW alumni and joined NetHope in 2005. He served as Managing Director of Global Programs for 11 years. In 2016, he took on the role of Vice President of Global Programs, where he oversees Field Programs. During his time with NetHope, Frank has worked closely with member agencies, corporate partners and NetHope staff to design, develop and deliver ICT related programs which are shared by the humanitarian sector. Prior to joining NetHope, Frank worked with public and private sector clients developing programs and solutions around the use of technology in the developing world. His client list includes UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), the University of Washington, Naguru Teenage Medical Centre and Microsoft Corporation. Frank has also spent hands-on time in the developing world, with time spent on programs in Africa, Southeast Asia, Central America and Eastern Europe. *Abstract*: Digital innovations have the potential to transform the way that international aid is delivered. Our speaker will share some of the ways that NetHope is innovating and spotlight promising information and communications technology trends to keep an eye on. Here's the link for joining remotely: *https://meet.google.com/kkr-mebs-okp <https://meet.google.com/kkr-mebs-okp>*.

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2/20 Change Seminar: Frank Schott, NetHope
by Kushal Shah 16 Feb '18

16 Feb '18

Hello Everyone, Please join us for the Change Seminar on Tuesday 2/20/2018 in *EEB 003*. *Who*: Frank Schott, Vice President, Global Programs at Nethope <http://nethope.org/> *What*: Digital Innovations for Disaster Relief *When*: Tuesday, Feb 20th, 12-1 PM *Where*: EEB 003 *Bio:* Frank is a UW alumni and joined NetHope in 2005. He served as Managing Director of Global Programs for 11 years. In 2016, he took on the role of Vice President of Global Programs, where he oversees Field Programs. During his time with NetHope, Frank has worked closely with member agencies, corporate partners and NetHope staff to design, develop and deliver ICT related programs which are shared by the humanitarian sector. Prior to joining NetHope, Frank worked with public and private sector clients developing programs and solutions around the use of technology in the developing world. His client list includes UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), the University of Washington, Naguru Teenage Medical Centre and Microsoft Corporation. Frank has also spent hands-on time in the developing world, with time spent on programs in Africa, Southeast Asia, Central America and Eastern Europe. *Abstract*: Digital innovations have the potential to transform the way that international aid is delivered. Our speaker will share some of the ways that NetHope is innovating and spotlight promising information and communications technology trends to keep an eye on. Here's the link for joining remotely: *https://meet.google.com/kkr-mebs-okp <https://meet.google.com/kkr-mebs-okp>*.

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(Tomorrow) Data Science from the Bottom Up: next Data Science Studies meeting Feb. 14th @ 2:30 pm
by Anissa Tanweer 13 Feb '18

13 Feb '18

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Anissa Tanweer <tanweer(a)uw.edu> Date: Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 2:58 PM Subject: Data Science from the Bottom Up: next Data Science Studies meeting Feb. 14th @ 2:30 pm Show your love for Data Science Studies this Valentine’s Day! Please join us in the Data Science Studio (6th Floor of the Physics and Astronomy Tower <http://www.washington.edu/maps/#!/pat>) on February 14th from 2:30-3:30 pm for a discussion seminar on the theme of “Data Science from the Bottom Up.” A hallmark of data science is the promise of improving the aggregation, reuse, and repurposing of data at scale. But this means data scientists themselves are often several degrees removed from the context of data production, missing key insights into the motivations, complications, and negotiations of actors at the local level where data is produced and used. In this session, we turn our attention to those local contexts. We’ll start the meeting with a presentation by Grégoire Lurton of Global Health and IHME, whose work interrogates the tension between the needs of local healthcare constituencies and their insertion in a Global Health infrastructure, often characterized by the imposition of global data standards from the top down. He develops statistical and data science methods that recenter the locus of control within local constituencies while still allowing for aggregation and comparison across contexts. Below you’ll find a more detailed preview of his talk and some brief biographical information. As usual, we’ll reserve a decent chunk of the hour for a group discussion following the presentation. Hope to see you there … you may even get some chocolate treats out of it! Sincerely, -- Anissa Tanweer PhD Candidate, Department of Communication Research Assistant, Human-Centered Data Science Lab Ethnographer, Data Science Studies, eScience Institute University of Washington Preview of Grégoire Lurton's talk: Global Health as a field relies on the articulation of a global and a local levels of knowledge production. The global level is the seat of international institutions and NGOs, academic structures, and funding agencies that work on addressing health questions framed as unified fields around the globe. The local level is the seat of national and sub-national governments, administrations, and civil society organizations that focus on implementing health interventions to tackle specific health issues. While the data needs and data cultures are different at each of these level, they utilize the same information infrastructure, and share data, tools and methods. The definition and development of these elements have long term impacts on the organization of national information systems and on health systems. In this regard, the diffusion of normed tools and methods defined at a global level for local utilization should be questioned for the ways in which they may disempower local institutions, communities, and cultures. Meanwhile, if the perverse effects of the use of quantified indicators in governance is often presented as inherent to the characteristics of quantitative work, there should be a place for statisticians and data scientists to offer an inner critique of the ethical and political dimensions of measurement, aimed at improving current practices. Describing the organization of computational work in low resource health systems, the presentation will discuss the political and ethical implications of this organization, and will present work aimed at helping rebalancing the distribution of power in this technical system. A first example will discuss how using agent based models to simulate cohorts and data collection processes can help adapt measurement methods to local situations. A second example will show how data hybridization strategies can improve the usability of high resolution population maps. --- Grégoire Lurton is a PhD Student in the Department of Global Health and a Research Associate at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. He graduated in Macroeconomics and Forecasting at the French National School for Statistics and Economic Administration (ENSAE ParisTech) and in Development Economics at Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences-Po). He has worked with NGO Solthis, working on the strengthening of country Health Information Systems for HIV programs in Guinea, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and Burundi and has short term work experiences in DRC, Burkina Faso and Tunisia, working for diverse organizations such as the World Bank, the French Development Agency or information systems start-up Bluesquare. -- Anissa Tanweer PhD Candidate, Department of Communication Research Assistant, Human-Centered Data Science Lab Ethnographer, Data Science Studies, eScience Institute University of Washington -- Anissa Tanweer PhD Candidate, Department of Communication Research Assistant, Human-Centered Data Science Lab Ethnographer, Data Science Studies, eScience Institute University of Washington

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2/13 Change Seminar: Jason Young, Technology and Social Change group
by Erin McAweeney 13 Feb '18

13 Feb '18

Thanks to everyone who made it to Maria Garrido's talk last week! This week we're welcoming another TASCHA researcher to speak about Environmental Change, Indigeneity, and Technology Use in the Arctic. *Who: *Jason Young, UW Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) *What: **Knowledge Politics Across Digital Divides: Environmental Change, Indigeneity, and Technology Use in the Arctic * *When:* Tuesday, Feb 13th, 12-1pm, lunch provided *Where:* ****EEB 003**** *Abstract:* Scholarly excitement around ICTD projects has long been tempered by the recognition that digital divides prevent the effects of technologies from being equal for all peoples or across all places. The material infrastructures and educational requirements of these technologies often intersect with pre-existing political and socio-economic histories to reproduce inequality. The unit of analysis for most of this work has been the individual or the community, asking how digital divides shape *who *has access to technological empowerment. I argue that this lens should be expanded to include an analysis of the broader implications that digital divides have for the visibility and legitimation of knowledge and value systems. Digital divides subtly shape *what types of knowledge* individuals can express once they do have access to digital spaces, and therefore have the potential to reproduce hierarchies in terms of what knowledge systems drive development processes. I ground this argument in a case study of how Inuit, an indigenous people of the Arctic, have engaged with digital technologies in Canada. Inuit increasingly have access to the Internet, and have used that access to push for increased representation of their views within discussions of environmental management. However, I find that a wide range of material inequalities and digital practices have minimized the ability of Inuit to fully express perspectives that are rooted in their indigenous knowledge system. To make their claims heard within digital spaces, they must instead translate their knowledge to fit within Western framings of the environment. These assimilatory processes not only reproduce colonial representations of the Arctic within digital spaces, but also reinforce colonial hierarchies within broader processes of environmental management and Arctic governance. Findings from this research have important implications for understanding the potentials and limitations of digital technologies for supporting the co-production of knowledge across different epistemological systems. *Bio:* Jason Young is a Senior Research Scientist at the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) of the University of Washington’s Information School. He is a human geographer that uses innovative combinations of computational analysis and traditional, qualitative methodologies to answer questions about the cultural and epistemological limits of emerging digital technologies. Specifically, his research focuses on how varied communities use technologies, from geographic information systems (GIS) to social media platforms, to increase the role of local knowledge in political processes. In the past Jason has worked with indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon and Canadian Arctic to understand the role of these technologies in advancing indigenous environmental politics. At TASCHA he has expanded his focus to understand the role of libraries in supporting local knowledge generation and access to digital tools, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Jason also has strong interests in participatory and mixed methods approaches, geospatial analysis, and geovisualization. He holds a Ph.D in Geography from the University of Washington. [image: Inline image 1]

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Fwd: ACM COMPASS 2018 Round 2 submissions: March 2nd, 2018
by Kentaro Toyama 12 Feb '18

12 Feb '18

ACM Compass CfP... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lakshminarayanan Subramanian <s.lakme(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, Feb 10, 2018 at 3:39 PM Subject: ACM COMPASS 2018 Round 2 submissions: March 2nd, 2018 To: tier(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu, sig-dev(a)googlegroups.com Hi all, The Round 2 submissions for ACM COMPASS 2018 are fast approaching with the paper deadline on March 2nd, 2018. The steering committee decided to extend the deadline to March 2nd from the previous deadline in mid-Feb. The Submission site for Round 2 has been updated to: https://compass18round2.hotcrp.com/ The CFP for the papers is available online (appended below) at: http://acmcompass.org Please submit and participate in the ACM COMPASS conference. Thank you, Ellen, Richard and Lakshmi ACM COMPASS 2018: CALL FOR PAPERS The first annual ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS 2018) invites submissions of Full Papers for the conference to be hosted at Facebook from June 20-22, 2018. COMPASS 2018 is a re-creation of the ACM DEV conference, which was held annually between 2010 and 2016. Inspired by the broad agenda of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the new conference expands the focus of the original conference to explicitly welcome work on all under-represented and/or marginalized communities worldwide and to include work on sustainability, gender equality, health, education, poverty, accessibility, conservation, climate change, and economic growth, among others. To ensure strong research contributions, the conference will review papers based on focus areas corresponding to the computing areas they draw upon. The four focus areas for the 2018 conference are *Systems*, *HCI*, *Data Science/AI*, and *Applications*. Possible topics for each focus area include, but are not limited to: *SYSTEMS FOCUS* ● Low-cost connectivity and computing devices ● Power-efficient systems ● Network solutions for poorly connected regions, including white space spectrum ● Novel tools and applications for underserved communities ● Mobile systems and applications ● Special-purpose systems, e.g sensors, wireless, IVR ● Cellular phone systems and applications ● Measurements of existing technology in underserved regions, e.g network deployment ● Systems challenges and opportunities in low-resource contexts, e.g security, sustainability, resilience ● IT systems for smart-grids and smart-homes *HCI FOCUS* ● User interfaces for low-literacy populations ● Multilingual computing ● Participatory methods and user-centered design for low resource contexts ● Accessible technologies for underserved communities with disabilities ● User interfaces for low-cost devices ● Adapting content and applications to local languages and education levels ● Understanding social relationships and information flows in underserved communities ● Understanding technology adoption dynamics in underserved communities *DATA SCIENCE/AI FOCUS* ● Computational sustainability ● Computational social science ● Econometric models and developmental economics ● Novel applications for underserved communities, including in poverty mapping, disease surveillance, population migration, health services ● Machine learning techniques for large-scale data analysis in development contexts ● Data cleaning and data integration methods ● Speech interfaces and translation for local languages ● Computer vision challenges and opportunities in low-resource settings ● Understanding social networks and digital media in underserved regions *APPLICATIONS AND OTHER FOCUS* ● Design and evaluation of applications in health, financial services, education, agriculture, entertainment, and social media in underserved regions ● Studies of large scale deployments of technology for social good ● Internet policy and law for underserved communities ● Critical analyses of technology in low resource contexts ● Blockchain applications ● Security analyses of systems used by marginalized communities ● Additional relevant topics not covered above The COMPASS conference will have a model of rolling submissions, as has been recently adopted by several other top conferences. As this is a transition year for the conference, there will be two separate submission dates. Papers submitted on the first deadline may be given the option of revise and resubmit for consideration of acceptance at the conference. Full papers will have a length limit of 7-10 pages (not including references). The conference will have a separate track for notes (short papers of 4 pages or fewer, focusing on a single topic). Please see the FAQ page for further clarifications. Details of the requirements for notes are below. *All submissions are due 11:59 pm UTC. Please submit at * https://compass18round2.hotcrp.com/*. Use the CHI 2018 Proceedings Format available here <https://chi2018.acm.org/chi-proceedings-format/>. See our FAQ <http://acmcompass.org/faq/> if you still have questions! * IMPORTANT DATES *January 12, 2018: Round one deadline for submission of Full Papers.* March 2, 2018: Notification of decisions for Full Papers submitted for round one. March 2, 2018: Round two deadline for submission of Full Papers. March 30, 2018: Deadline for resubmission of round one papers that were not accepted, but invited to resubmit. March 30, 2018: Deadline for Notes. April 13, 2018: Notification of decisions for Full Papers submitted for round two. April 13, 2018: Notification of decisions on resubmitted Full Papers of round one and Notes. May 4, 2018: Camera-ready of Full Papers accepted in rounds one and two and Notes due.

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ACM COMPASS 2018 Round 2 submissions: March 2nd, 2018
by Richard Anderson 10 Feb '18

10 Feb '18

From: tier-bounces(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu [mailto:tier-bounces@tier.cs.berkeley.edu] On Behalf Of Lakshminarayanan Subramanian Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2018 12:40 PM To: tier(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu; sig-dev(a)googlegroups.com Subject: [TIER] ACM COMPASS 2018 Round 2 submissions: March 2nd, 2018 Hi all, The Round 2 submissions for ACM COMPASS 2018 are fast approaching with the paper deadline on March 2nd, 2018. The steering committee decided to extend the deadline to March 2nd from the previous deadline in mid-Feb. The Submission site for Round 2 has been updated to: https://compass18round2.hotcrp.com/ The CFP for the papers is available online (appended below) at: http://acmcompass.org Please submit and participate in the ACM COMPASS conference. Thank you, Ellen, Richard and Lakshmi ACM COMPASS 2018: CALL FOR PAPERS The first annual ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS 2018) invites submissions of Full Papers for the conference to be hosted at Facebook from June 20-22, 2018. COMPASS 2018 is a re-creation of the ACM DEV conference, which was held annually between 2010 and 2016. Inspired by the broad agenda of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the new conference expands the focus of the original conference to explicitly welcome work on all under-represented and/or marginalized communities worldwide and to include work on sustainability, gender equality, health, education, poverty, accessibility, conservation, climate change, and economic growth, among others. To ensure strong research contributions, the conference will review papers based on focus areas corresponding to the computing areas they draw upon. The four focus areas for the 2018 conference are Systems, HCI, Data Science/AI, and Applications. Possible topics for each focus area include, but are not limited to: SYSTEMS FOCUS ● Low-cost connectivity and computing devices ● Power-efficient systems ● Network solutions for poorly connected regions, including white space spectrum ● Novel tools and applications for underserved communities ● Mobile systems and applications ● Special-purpose systems, e.g sensors, wireless, IVR ● Cellular phone systems and applications ● Measurements of existing technology in underserved regions, e.g network deployment ● Systems challenges and opportunities in low-resource contexts, e.g security, sustainability, resilience ● IT systems for smart-grids and smart-homes HCI FOCUS ● User interfaces for low-literacy populations ● Multilingual computing ● Participatory methods and user-centered design for low resource contexts ● Accessible technologies for underserved communities with disabilities ● User interfaces for low-cost devices ● Adapting content and applications to local languages and education levels ● Understanding social relationships and information flows in underserved communities ● Understanding technology adoption dynamics in underserved communities DATA SCIENCE/AI FOCUS ● Computational sustainability ● Computational social science ● Econometric models and developmental economics ● Novel applications for underserved communities, including in poverty mapping, disease surveillance, population migration, health services ● Machine learning techniques for large-scale data analysis in development contexts ● Data cleaning and data integration methods ● Speech interfaces and translation for local languages ● Computer vision challenges and opportunities in low-resource settings ● Understanding social networks and digital media in underserved regions APPLICATIONS AND OTHER FOCUS ● Design and evaluation of applications in health, financial services, education, agriculture, entertainment, and social media in underserved regions ● Studies of large scale deployments of technology for social good ● Internet policy and law for underserved communities ● Critical analyses of technology in low resource contexts ● Blockchain applications ● Security analyses of systems used by marginalized communities ● Additional relevant topics not covered above The COMPASS conference will have a model of rolling submissions, as has been recently adopted by several other top conferences. As this is a transition year for the conference, there will be two separate submission dates. Papers submitted on the first deadline may be given the option of revise and resubmit for consideration of acceptance at the conference. Full papers will have a length limit of 7-10 pages (not including references). The conference will have a separate track for notes (short papers of 4 pages or fewer, focusing on a single topic). Please see the FAQ page for further clarifications. Details of the requirements for notes are below. All submissions are due 11:59 pm UTC. Please submit at https://compass18round2.hotcrp.com/. Use the CHI 2018 Proceedings Format available here<https://chi2018.acm.org/chi-proceedings-format/>. See our FAQ<http://acmcompass.org/faq/> if you still have questions! IMPORTANT DATES January 12, 2018: Round one deadline for submission of Full Papers. March 2, 2018: Notification of decisions for Full Papers submitted for round one. March 2, 2018: Round two deadline for submission of Full Papers. March 30, 2018: Deadline for resubmission of round one papers that were not accepted, but invited to resubmit. March 30, 2018: Deadline for Notes. April 13, 2018: Notification of decisions for Full Papers submitted for round two. April 13, 2018: Notification of decisions on resubmitted Full Papers of round one and Notes. May 4, 2018: Camera-ready of Full Papers accepted in rounds one and two and Notes due.

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Super Special Extra Change Seminar: Nico Pace- Community Wireless Networks Around the World
by Esther Jang 09 Feb '18

09 Feb '18

Please join us for an unexpected extra Change Seminar this *Friday 2/9/2018 (tomorrow)* in *EEB003, our usual seminar room*! *Who: *Nico Pace, Altermundi *What:** Community Wireless Networks Around the World* *When:* Tuesday, Feb 9th, 3:30pm *Where:** EEB003* [image: Inline image 1] *Bio:* Nicolás is a full-time nomad. He works for AlterMundi <https://www.altermundi.net/>, a Grassroots organization devoted to support communities in the self-provision of telecommunications infrastructure mainly through wireless mesh networks. He has been traveling around countries of America, Africa, Europe and Asia to understand the different needs of rural global south communities and to create a bond between them to collaborate in the creation of empowering telecommunications solutions to grow in the exercise of their freedom and power. He also does outreach and training activities in the context of Wireless Mesh Community Networks and is part of the LibreMesh development project. source <http://radicalnetworks.org/participants/nicolas-pace> *Abstract:* >From an Association for Progressive Communications <https://www.apc.org/en/blog/expanding-community-networks-around-world-alter…> blog post this January: "One year ago, our members’ network was joined by Altermundi, an Argentina-based NGO that strives to promote a new paradigm based on freedom gained through peer-to-peer collaboration. AlterMundi explores different forms of such collaboration from a technological perspective and with an emphasis on wireless community networks in small towns and rural areas. Through projects such as LibreMesh and LibreRouter, they contribute to a model based on accessible technologies that can be used by people with no expertise in this area. AlterMundi members describe themselves as nomads. Over the past year, their mission to expand their model of community networks has led them to cross several continents, to participate in projects in large capital cities and in small towns and to divide themselves between global meetings with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and small, rural communities."

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Software development student positions with UW's Clinical Informatics Research Group (CIRG RA 2018)
by Justin McReynolds 09 Feb '18

09 Feb '18

We at the UW's Clinical Informatics Research Group (http://cirg.washington.edu) are looking for graduate and undergraduate students interested in hourly or RA positions in software development. This is a great opportunity for students to gain experience with open-source software engineering and health informatics. Our group designs, develops, and administers clinical, global, population, and consumer health information systems for both research and usual care. Requirements: * Demonstrated development experience with PHP or Python, and database experience with PostgreSQL or MySQL. * Comfort working with Linux systems at the command line. * 10-20 hours / week. Desired experience: * HTML5, CSS, Javascript. * Development and consumption of RESTful APIs. * Health informatics. * Python Flask, CakePHP. * Mobile app dev. * Git & Git workflows. For more information, please contact either Justin McReynolds (mcjustin(a)uw.edu<mailto:mcjustin@uw.edu>) or Dr. Bill Lober (lober(a)uw.edu<mailto:lober@uw.edu>), referencing "CIRG RA 2018". Thanks, and apologies for any cross-posting! Justin McReynolds Technical Program Manager Clinical Informatics Research Group University of Washington

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