Dear friends,

TL;DR: Please fill out this short survey to let us know if and how you'd like to participate in our virtual events, and circulate to all the 4Ders you think may be interested.

We hope that this email finds you in good health. COVID-19 has forced some of us to hit pause on many aspects of our lives, even as it throws others’ into a frenzy. To make sense of this madness, build a stronger and richer community, and draw together our strengths in this current (and rapidly evolving) state of the world, we propose a series of virtual events to bring us together: to take a step back and learn more about each other’s work, engage in dialog over various ongoing discussion threads, and think about the larger questions that face us, as a community and as a world. 

The goal of these events will be to organize dialog in varying formats on topics pertaining to computing and global, sustainable development. Included in our target audience will be students, researchers, and practitioners working at this intersection across fields such as ICT4D, HCI4D, ML4D, AI4D, Data Science for Social Good, COMPASS, ICT4S, Sustainable HCI, etc. If this series is successful in the summer, we will aim for extending it, possibly to culminate with an in-person event when the COVID madness is behind us (TBD indeed). 

Questions on our minds that we could start with (no doubt there are more on yours):
  • How is COVID-19 impacting underserved communities across the world?
  • How is the research I’m doing relevant or useful in these times?
  • How are others in my research community responding to COVID-19 in their work and/or day-to-day lives?
  • How might we best continue with our past research initiatives given our lack of mobility in these times?
  • How might we make use of this time to reorient ourselves, our students, our scholarship, our community, maybe by being better/different learners, instructors, researchers, practitioners, communicators, etc.?
  • Are there research questions and agenda that we as a community should be brainstorming right now?
  • How can *I* get involved in more, and more impactful, research and initiatives?
  • These and many more!
All types of participation are welcome—you can choose to stay informed, participate as listener or learner, or contribute more actively either by talking or collaborating with others. If there was ever a time that was right for us all to come together, this would perhaps be it. But what would be the structure of these events? Here is the result of our first brainstorm, and your inputs via the survey or just email would be great!

Proposal version 0.0:
We conduct a session every two weeks (starting mid-late May) that lasts 90-120 minutes and involves one/more of the following:
  • A panel with 3-4 participants (e.g., the use of social media during COVID-19)
  • A set of research talks (e.g., a selection of CHI2020 HCI4D paper presentations)
  • Reporting back on efforts from non-profits (e.g., GramVaani)
  • Facilitated brainstorming session (e.g., on doing research under lockdown)
  • Calls for action (e.g., for collaborations across disciplinary borders)
  • Virtual happy hours (or dance parties?!)
  • ...
We plan to do informal Zoom/BlueJeans calls that are open to everyone. We will send out a schedule roughly once a month, and publicize using Facebook and Twitter. We will also send out a brief announcement on the Google groups mailing list we create. So please fill out this short survey to let us know how you’d like to be involved.

Thank you, stay well, and see you soon!
Your friendly 4D (virtual) neighborhood