CALL FOR PAPERS 4th ACM Workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions: NSDR 2010 (now merged with the ACM Wireless Networks and Systems for Developing Regions Workshop - WiNS-DR) Co-located with the 8th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services (MobiSys 2010) San Francisco, CA, USA June 15th, 2010 http://www.dritte.org/nsdr10 Important Dates * Submission Deadline: April 9, 2010 (23:59 PST) * Notification: May 3, 2010 * Camera-ready: May 17, 2010 * Workshop: June 15, 2010 Background Following three successful workshops of NSDR at SIGCOMM 2007, SIGCOMM 2008 and SOSP 2009, the 4th ACM Workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions (NSDR'10) will provide a venue for researchers to propose and discuss ideas concerning the design, implementation and evaluation of new computing and communications technologies to support the sustainable development of developing regions. The 4th NSDR workshop is also merging efforts with the ACM Wireless Networks and Systems for Developing Regions workshop (WiNS-DR) which was co-located with MobiCom 2008. More than a billion, less fortunate, people on this planet survive on less than a dollar a day. Appropriate Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD) has the potential to significantly impact the lives of many in the bottom billion. The decreasing cost and increasing access to information and communication technologies (e.g., mobile phones) are rapidly enabling access to new services and markets for previously disconnected populations. However, due to a variety of factors, including cost, literacy, education, and organizational capacity, conventional approaches to technology design and implementation are often not relevant. Addressing this requires engagement of several disciplines, including but not limited to economics, sociology, anthropology, and political science, and expertise in a variety of application areas - including government, health, finance and agriculture. Thus, in addition to considering the specifics of networking protocols and architectures, the aim of the workshop is to consider the entire system by which networking and communication is provided, all the key technical stakeholders, and the overall system lifecycle from economic modeling to deployment. NSDR specifically focuses on the technical networking and systems research challenges that arise in the development of new computing solutions appropriate for developing regions where conventional solutions are often inappropriate and the development of new research approaches and innovative designs and techniques is often required. NSDR solicits papers that either highlight important networking and systems challenges in this space or describe the deployment and evaluation of novel technologies or applications that address a specific need. We encourage submission of position papers or the results of preliminary work describing interesting, original, previously unpublished ideas or results pertaining to the design, implementation and/or evaluation of networks and systems for developing regions. Papers, Topics of Interest We encourage submission of position papers or the results of preliminary work describing interesting, original, previously unpublished ideas or results pertaining to the design, implementation and/or evaluation of networks and systems for developing regions. Accepted papers will: * Propose new research directions; * Target a specific application; * Inform design and/or deployment; and/or * Generate lively debate at the workshop. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: * Low-cost wireless connectivity * Intermittent and delay-tolerant systems * Rural network planning and spectrum management protocols and techniques * Mechanisms for emergency and urgent communications * Location-aware systems * Power-efficient systems * Low-cost computing devices * Mobile systems and applications * Middleware and mechanisms for minimizing energy, latency and storage (caching etc) * Adapting content and applications for local languages * User interfaces for low-literacy populations * Shared access devices and infrastructure, including personalization and privacy concerns * Design and evaluation of applications and in-depth case studies in the areas of public health, microfinance, agriculture, e-governance, education, monitoring, disaster management, etc. Submission Instructions Submissions must be no greater than 6 pages (six pages) in length (including figures and references), must use a minimum 10pt font and minimum 1inch margins, must be in the form of a PDF file, and must follow formatting guidelines and instructions at http://www.dritte.org/nsdr10/submit.html Submissions that deviate from these guidelines will be rejected without consideration. Reviews will be SINGLE-BLIND: authors' names and affiliations should be included in the submission. Authors of accepted papers are expected to present their papers at the workshop. Submissions must be original work not under review at any other workshop, conference or journal. Steering Committee Elizabeth Belding, Univ. of California at Santa Barbara, USA Gaetano Borriello, Univ. of Washington, USA Eric Brewer, Univ. of California at Berkeley, USA Ravi Jain, Google, USA Umar Saif, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan Lakshmi Subramanian, New York University, USA Program Committee Gaetano Borriello, U. Washington (Program Co-Chair) Bhaskaran Raman, IIT-Mumbai (Program Co-Chair) Muneeb Ali, Princeton Ken Banks, Kiwanja.net Eric Brewer, UC Berkeley Ravi Jain, Google Sharad Jaiswal, Alcatel-Lucent Mahesh Marina, Univ. of Edinburgh Prasant Mohapatra, UC Davis Vivek Pai, Princeton Tapan Parikh, UC Berkeley Umar Saif, LUMS Lakshmi Subramanian, NYU Bill Thies, MSR India Arun Venkataramani, Univ. of Massachusetts