Call for Participation Workshop at ICTD2009 Friday 17 April 2009 ICTD2009 will be the third conference to highlight rigorous, scholarly research in ICTD. Yet, many feel that the question of what constitutes good ICTD research is still unclear.* *In this workshop, we aim to raise and explore some of the questions around what makes good ICTD research. For example, - How do we incorporate multiple disciplines without sacrificing quality and sound methodology? - Are there universal critieria by which the quality of ICTD research can be judged? - What kind of paper-review process and criteria makes sense? - How much 'development' evaluation needs to go into technology research, and how much 'technology' evaluation needs to go into development research? - How should the conference engage with policy-making? - What voices are missing from the current ICTD community? These questions are an ongoing discussion among researchers from all walks of the ICTD world, and yet it is rare that they are brought up in formal dialogue. Examining these questions will help define what makes ICTD research unique and create a stronger sense of community among ICTD researchers. We cannot hope to answer these questions in any definitive way in a half-day workshop, but we will raise new and old opportunities and challenges. Opening up these critical areas of debate will inform the ICTD advisory and program committees, editors of ICTD-related journals, and authors of ICTD papers. *Intended Audience:* This workshop is intended for ICTD program committee members, ICTD paper authors and potential authors, researchers, students, and others who are interested in questions of what makes for good ICTD research. *Format:* This half-day workshop will consist of a short panel by individuals from various communities within ICTD followed by a series of small and large group discussions. Moderators will provide context and materials surrounding existing areas of debate in ICTD research ? for example, underrepresented topics, paper-review criteria, good methodology, and incorporation of multiple disciplines. Participants will then be encouraged to raise, discuss, and prioritize their own questions surrounding 'what makes good ICTD research'. * * *Outcomes: *A written summary of our discussions as well as any recommendations will be provided to all participants and submitted to the ICTD advisory board. We also hope this discussion will be a catalyst for discussion in other ICTD venues, and invite participants to help disseminate our discussions in other forums as well. * * *Learning goals* - To foster a more nuanced discussion of what constitutes quality ICTD research - To work towards a common understanding of ICTD among research communities with diverse standards and methodologies - To discuss possible criteria by which ICTD publications across various disciplines can be compared - To explore future ideas for the ICTD research community *Participation:* To participate, please email a statement of interest copied to Rowena Luk (rowena@amitatelemedicine.org) and David Hollow ( D.M.Hollow@rhul.ac.uk). Please include your name, affiliation, a very short biography, and a brief description of your interest in the workshop. Note that this information may be circulated in advance to other participants in order to facilitate small group discussions. Please email your interest as soon as possible because participation will be capped at a first-come-first-selected basis to 40 participants to ensure a manageable and insightful conversation. *Important Dates: * Submission of statements: 15 March 2009 Notification of acceptance: 30 March 2009 Workshop: 1:30 pm -5:00 pm 17 April 2009 *Cost: *Workshop attendance is free for ICTD2009 conference attendees. Attendees however have to be registered for ICTD2009 to attend the workshop, or apply for a waiver. *Attendee Sponsorships*: There are very limited sponsorships and waivers for workshop participants. If you need these, you have to apply directly through the website at: http://www.ictd2009.org/scholarships.html Note -- the deadline is Feb 25, enforced strictly. *Organisers / Presenters: *David Hollow, Royal Holloway University of London Heather Horst, University of California, Irvine Renee Kuriyan, Intel Research Rowena Luk, AMITA Telemedicine Inc. Balaji Parthasarathy, International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore Isha Ray, University of California, Berkeley Jo Tacchi, Queensland University of Technology Rahul Tongia, Carnegie Mellon University Kentaro Toyama, Microsoft Research India John Traxler, University of Wolverhampton