The 1st International Conference on “M4D” was held at Centre for HumanIT, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden, 11-12 December, 2008.
New developments in mobile communication technologies have generated a number of possibilities for economic and social development in low-income countries. M4D 2008 focused specifically on mobile technologies within the broader field of study that has now become known as ICT4D (“ICT for Development”). We strived to have an event where all types of actors were included. There was a research stream with a traditional conference design and a practitioner’s stream where industry, NGOs, and public bodies disseminated their knowledge. M4D 2008 received 134 registrations representing 32 different nationalities. The research keynote was held by Richard Heeks, Univ. Manchester, UK and the industry keynote was held by Chloe Chick, GSMA Development Fund, GSM Association. More information and the final program is available at http://m4d.humanit.org