We are organizing an awesome workshop at CHI 2016 that focuses on "HCI across borders". I think many of you will find interesting. Please submit and attend if you can! *Call for Proposals* Two-Day Workshop in San Jose (CA, USA) at CHI 2016 <http://chi2016.acm.org/> Development Consortium 2016: HCI Across Borders <http://hci4dacrossborders.wordpress.com/> 7th-8th May, 2016 *About the Workshop* The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community at CHI has expanded its scope in recent years to study technology use in under-served, under-represented, and under-resourced regions around the world. This area of work is identified (not without debate) at CHI as HCI4D*, where the ‘D’ is used for highlighting the ‘developing world’ context where much of this work has taken place. To work around the limitations imposed by this term, we invite individuals who identify themselves as HCI4D researchers/practitioners, *and also more broadly* – those who are keen to pursue research and practice in these under-served, under-represented, and/or under-resourced contexts. Nearly a decade ago, at CHI 2007, the first workshop on user-centered design and international development was held – also in San Jose. Since then, we have seen an explosion of work in this area. This has been accompanied by a growth of sophistication in understanding, methods, approaches, and techniques towards devising solutions to problems seemingly intractable due to logistical and methodological challenges. As the area has grown, it has understandably become harder for us to stay connected with the expanding scope of research and practice and the increasing number of people involved. While technological and methodological advances are critical for further development of our field, so too is it important for us to stay connected. We often work in relatively isolated contexts, geographically dispersed across the globe, and rarely find the opportunity to associate with the larger community even though we know this could be helpful. Why work across borders? Though every country and context is unique, and much of our work aims to design for “situatedness”, there are lessons to be learned across borders as well. Questions we would like to ask include: What are common themes that tie together different resource-constrained contexts? For instance, could a maternal health project in India benefit from lessons learned from a project in Kenya and vice versa? How can we – as a community – work within countries *and* across them as well? The primary objective of this event is to bring together HCI voices from across the globe at one venue as they develop themes of common interests and work on potential projects/proposals they can pursue together as collaborators. Our secondary, and larger, objective however is to launch a series of such workshops that will help advance towards a richer, stronger, and a fundamentally more cohesive community overall. ** Unpacking the term HCI4D will be one of the undertakings of this workshop. Though debated, the term helps us refer to the area that applies what we know about human-centered processes and technology design to work that aspires towards economic, social, and human development. * *Participation* Our workshop will take place over two days – *7th/8th May 2016* – and solicit participation from HCI researchers and practitioners across the globe who work with under-served, under-represented, and/or under-resourced communities. We invite participants keen to explore collaborations across borders and geographies. We define “borders” and “geographies” broadly to include both national boundaries and more localized boundaries such as those between cities or different groups within a country. Research areas of focus can be diverse, including but not limited to education, healthcare, civic engagement, mobile banking, etc. We welcome all methodological and ideological leanings. Examples of topics/themes of interest might include, among others: - Leveraging participatory design and co-design approaches - Factoring cultural sensitivities in the design of new technologies - Designing to accommodate power differentials - Devising innovative techniques for engaging users - Designing for sustainability Examples of projects might include, among others: - Study of Facebook use and gender roles in South Africa vs. in Namibia - Design of mobile-based reporting systems for targeted African-American and impoverished citizens to report police brutality in Atlanta (GA), Minneapolis (MN), and New York (NY) - Design of mobile media for maternal and newborn health in India and Pakistan - Study of IVR use to provide information on agricultural practices in Peru and Ethiopia - Development of mobile technology-based supports for prenatal care among the Ngabe-Bugle and the Embera in Panama *Submissions* Please submit a proposal (2-4 pages in the CHI Extended Abstracts <http://www.sigchi.org/publications/chipubform/sigchi-extended-abstracts-format-2016/view> format) by *21st December 2015* for early notification of acceptance (by 31st December) and *15th January 2016* for notification by *19th February*. Submissions should discuss a plan or intent to collaborate ‘across borders’, articulating an area of work and research questions of interest. If these include potential projects and collaborators, even better! Submissions can be crafted by *a set* of authors (who may like to meet and discuss at the workshop), or by a smaller group/individual seeking additional team members. If additional collaborators are sought, submissions should describe desired expertise/profiles/locations. These submissions will seed small group discussions and informal presentations at the workshop. All submissions will be reviewed by the organizers and selected according to their potential to contribute to the workshop’s goals and foster discussion. Accepted submissions will be available on our workshop website at least two weeks before the conference to allow participants to prepare. In addition, organizers may consider the publication of revised versions of accepted papers as part of a special issue in a related journal. Please send submissions to hci4d.across.borders@gmail.com. All deadlines will be observed at 11.59pm AoE <http://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/aoe>. *Bursaries* CHI workshop guidelines require that at least one author of each accepted submission attend and that each (physical) participant be registered for the workshop and one day of the conference. If these constraints become limiting, please contact us so that workarounds might be considered. We are working on obtaining funding to pay travel expenses (or at least a portion thereof) for attendees in need. So if you do work in this area and are hesitating because you believe that obtaining travel money will be difficult to impossible, please go ahead and submit anyway. We will work with you to try and fund (or partially fund) your travel. *Virtual Participation* We understand that not everyone who wishes to participate (with or without a submission) will be able to attend physically, be it due to financial or other constraints. We invite you to express an interest to participate (via email) and we will work with you to accommodate you on our ‘virtual track’ where you will also have the chance to work with a mentor and on a team. *Organizers* Neha Kumar, Georgia Tech, co-chair (USA) Susan Dray, Dray & Associates, co-chair (USA) Andrew Dearden, Sheffield Hallam University (UK) Nicola Dell, Cornell Tech (USA) Melissa Densmore, University of Cape Town (South Africa) Brian DeRenzi, University of Cape Town (South Africa) Beki Grinter, Georgia Tech (USA) Zhengjie Liu, Dalian Maritime University (China) Mario A. Moreno Rocha, Universidad Tecnologica de la Mixteca (Mexico) Eunice Sari, University of Western Australia (Australia) Bill Thies, Microsoft Research, India (India) Indrani Medhi Thies, Microsoft Reearch, India (India) William Tucker, University of the Western Cape (South Africa) Elba Valderrama Bahamondez, Universidad Technologia de Panama (Panama) Susan Wyche, Michigan State University (USA) *Contact* For more details, please check the workshop website: https://hci4dacrossborders.wordpress.com/ Email us your questions at: hci4d.across.borders@gmail.com