---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Abhigyan Singh <abhigyan.singh@gmail.com> Date: Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 04:25 Subject: Introduction To: yanokwa@gmail.com Cc: abhigyan.sub@gmail.com, change@change.washington.edu Dear Yaw and Change Group members, I hope you all are doing good. I write this email to introduce my research which may be of some interest to members of Change Group. Earlier this year, I finished my master's studies in New Media Design from Aalto University School of Art and Design (previously known as University of Art and Design Helsinki) Finland. My master's thesis (title: Design Opportunities and Challenges in Indian Urban Slums - Community Communication and Mobile Phones) is based on two ethnographic field studies done in urban slums of India. The aim of this master’s thesis is to identify design challenges and opportunities for mobile based community communication services for marginalized communities belonging to Indian urban slums. The thesis is grounded in the conceptual frameworks of Community Informatics, Communicative Ecology and Communities of Practices. This qualitative research is best identified as participatory bottom-up exploration. In the context of Indian urban slums this thesis discusses the existing practices of mobile phone's use, identifies the 'Human Nodes' of community communication, presents design opportunities and challenges for community communication services, and proposes a design concept called 'Asynchronous Voice based Community Communication Service'. You could see/download thesis presentation and full-text from the following links: Master's Thesis Presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/abhigyan1107/masters-thesis-presentation-abhigyan-... Master's Thesis: http://www.mobileactive.org/research/design-opportunities-and-challenges-ind... I will be available for any discussion in any aspect of this research or similar works. Please feel free to write to me. Best Regards, Abhigyan Singh LinkedIn: http://in.linkedin.com/in/agsingh Sample Portfolio: http://www.slideshare.net/abhigyan1107/portfolio-abhigyan-singh