- change - Mailing Lists

uwchange is now on twitter
by Yaw Anokwa 08 Feb '09

08 Feb '09

if you use twitter, make sure to follow http://twitter.com/uwchange to get tweets about events as well as ictd content on the web. yaw

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Talk Announcement, February 11
by Richard Anderson 05 Feb '09

05 Feb '09

Building a Grassroots Transportation Information System CSE 590f seminar Wednesday, Feb 11, 4:00 pm, CSE 403 Building a Grassroots Transportation Information System Beth Kolko UW, Dept. of Human Centered Design and Engineering Ruth Anderson UW, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering In this presentation we will discuss the development of a transportation information system designed to make the sharing of transportation resources more efficient and effective. The system is built on GPS and SMS technologies, and it bridges the gap when there are no public facilities or agencies managing public transportation resources in a city or country. The prototype of the system (*bus) was developed for deployment in Kyrgyzstan. Our talk will describe (a) a longitudinal ethnographic study in Kyrgyzstan that demonstrated the importance of transportation resources in the developing world and how to plan for an appropriate ICT solution, and (b) present the results of a proof-of-concept system engineered to create a bottom-up, transportation information infrastructure using GPS and SMS. Transportation is a shared resource; enabling efficient and effective use of such resources aids overall development goals. The system, *bus, involved creating a hardware device (a *box) containing a GSM modem and a GPS unit, that can be taken onto a vehicle to track its location. The *box communicates via SMS with a server connected to a simple GSM phone. The server runs route prediction algorithms and users can send SMS messages to the server to find when a bus will arrive at their location. We will discuss the system and early testing, as well as the development implications for a range of urban and rural environments where transportation is scarce or inefficient, and where a central authority or institution is not in a position to provide robust information resources for users. We describe how the solution is also situated within technology usage patterns common to the developing world.

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Upcoming talks
by Richard Anderson 05 Feb '09

05 Feb '09

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

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

05 Feb '09

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

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

04 Feb '09

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

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

02 Feb '09

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

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Fwd: laptop vs mobile
by joe michiels 29 Jan '09

29 Jan '09

An interesting discussion thread for Change folks, including three articles polarizing the laptops vs. mobile phones discussion. Joe Michiels jmich(a)u.washington.edu Foster School of Business, Class of 2010 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Stephane Boyera <boyera(a)w3.org> Date: Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 1:40 AM Subject: laptop vs mobile To: public-mw4d(a)w3.org Dear All, In case some of you missed it, you would surely be interested in an article in the guardian about laptop vs mobile as the best way to offer development-oriented services: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/13/one-laptop-per-child-cory-… This article triggered some reactions in the community. I encourage the reading of http://manypossibilities.net/2009/01/mobiles-versus-laptops/ and http://whiteafrican.com/2009/01/26/africa-the-mobiles-vs-pcs-debate/ which are two great posts. Best Stephane -- Stephane Boyera stephane(a)w3.org W3C +33 (0) 5 61 86 13 08 BP 93 fax: +33 (0) 4 92 38 78 22 F-06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

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CSE 590f, Jan 28, Joyojeet Pal
by Richard Anderson 25 Jan '09

25 Jan '09

Joyojeet will be talking in this week's seminar: CSE 590f Computing and the Developing World Wednesday, January 28, 4pm, CSE 403 RuralScope: An Repository for Tracking Rural Disbursements Joyojeet Pal UW CIS and UW CSE Concerns among development professionals about designing robust information systems to enable efficient disbursement of development funds are seen in the rising interest in e-governance projects in various parts of the developing world. The National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) Scheme in India has been one of the largest rural unemployment benefits schemes in the world, both in economic terms and in complexity of implementation. The scheme currently offers payments to over 31.1 million households throughout the country. Within the first few years of its implementation, a number of allegations of irregularity in both the implementation and disbursement. The information-related problems posed by the NREG implementation mirror issues faced by several similar rural development projects around the world that involve small disbursements to large numbers of recipients. While a large amount of data exists both on the outlay and expenditure of disbursements as well as past monitoring, poor organization of the data hampers accurate evaluation of the progress and impact of the scheme. RuralScope is an initiative to create an efficient and searchable system of data, first for use by field monitors, and second for use by researchers studying the impact of such programs. Through an annotatable online feature, RuralScope also aims at aggregating various sources of knowledge about the NREG scheme, potentially offering a model for similar development projects where access to information on users is hard to reach. Bio: Joyojeet Pal is a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Information and Society at the School of Information, University of Washington. His research is broadly on technology and economic development. His recent work has focused on children's shared use of technology in education.

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Talk Announcement, Wed, Jan 21, 4pm, CSE 403
by Richard Anderson 20 Jan '09

20 Jan '09

Ali Mokdad from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation will be speaking tomorrow in the computing and the developing world seminar. There are tremendous challenges in conducting accurate public health surveys in the developing world - Ali will be talking about these in the context of technology change. This is a great opportunity to learn more about a very important domain, where there are many open computing and technology problems. CSE 590f, Wednesday, January 21, 4:00-4:50 pm, CSE 403. Public Health Surveillance in a Changing Telecommunication Environment. Dr. Ali Mokdad, IHME and UW The rapid changes in telecommunication technology has changed public health surveillance. For example, response rates for most random digit dial (RDD) telephone surveys declined precipitously, leaving researchers to question the validity and reliability of these data. The growth in telemarketing efforts, increased use of cellular telephones, advancements in caller-identification and call-screening technology, and the advent of "do not call" lists have helped to accelerate this drop in surveys participation. As a result, several large surveillance system are using a "multi mode" approach to data collection by administering their surveys via the web, mail, cellular telephone, and landline telephone. The presentation will provide an overview of the challenges and solutions. Dr. Mokdad recently joined the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The main mission of IHME is to monitor global health conditions and health systems, as well as evaluate interventions, initiatives, and reforms. This will provide high quality and timely information on health so that policymakers, researchers, donors, practitioners, local decision-makers, and others can better allocate limited resources to achieve optimal results.

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programmer for ghana health project
by Yaw Anokwa 20 Jan '09

20 Jan '09

The Ghana Health Information Systems Development (GHISD) project seeks to hire a computer scientist who will be posted in the Dangbe West District of Ghana. GHISD will test whether the adaptation of existing mobile phone technology can help address these problems by significantly easing information capture for community-based health care workers and providing a mechanism for communication between front-line health care workers and their supervisors. This is a project in partnership with Columbia, Grameen and the Ghana Health Service and sounds like it'd be pretty fun. I've attached the job description with all the contact information. Please forward as necessary.

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