This is veering off-topic in relation to Bob's original post, but in any case: I think choosing to participate in ICTD research is really a matter of personal interest. I suspect that the people you refer to as "high caliber" are ones who were high performers in CS undergrad, which generally is theory heavy in that graphics, algorithms, and programming languages are subject areas of focus, so it's natural that they would be drawn to those fields. ICTD, including telemedicine, is extremely interdisciplinary, where successful projects involve fields ranging from ethnography and psychology, HCI, etc., for project design, to techincal skills for implementation work in extremely resource-constrained environments. On top of that, it's a very new field, so bringing all of that together is a daunting task in working towards a PhD thesis, especially in CS, and from what I've seen requires the initiative and dedication that come with strong personal interest in the field. And for the record, at least at the University of Washington, where I'm a CS undergrad, there do exist high-caliber professors and students working on ICTD issues. For reference: http://change.cs.washington.edu/ Regards, Sunil On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 5:54 PM, David Farber <dave@farber.net> wrote:

Begin forwarded message:

From: Date: December 4, 2008 8:08:03 PM EST To: dave@farber.net Subject: PLEASE ANONYMIZE - Re: [IP] Re: amazing and appalling at the same time

PLEASE ANONYMIZE - thanks

From: "Bob Frankston" <Bob19-0501@bobf.frankston.com>

...

Date: December 4, 2008 5:08:12 PM EST To: <dave@farber.net>, "'ip'" <ip@v2.listbox.com> Subject: RE: [IP] amazing and appalling at the same time

Telemedicine should be too boring to write about.

...

Perhaps that is the problem. I worked in a lab with graduate-level computer scientists in health informatics. None of the students were what I would describe as high caliber. Those students worked on 'sexier', more 'hardcore' PhD topics, like graphics, algorithmics, and programming languages. I could not be dragged kicking and screaming to work on 'telemedicine', and I suspect most high caliber CS researchers would be the same.

PLEASE ANONYMIZE - thanks

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