“Young” Researchers’ Workshop at ICTD2009 Friday 17 April 2009

Call for Papers and Participation

In conjunction with the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2009) 17 – 19 April 2009, Doha, Qatar, http://www.ictd2009.org

IPID (the International Network for Postgraduate Students in the area of ICT4D) together with GSHCID (Graduate Students in Human-Computer Interaction and Development) are organising a workshop for “young” researchers to be held on Friday 17 April 2009 8:30am – 5:00pm at Carnegie-Mellon’s campus in Doha, Qatar.

Focus: The focus will be on the process of ICT4D research giving the participants an opportunity to discuss and reflect on various aspects of such research.

Program: The workshop aims to provide an informal forum where participants can share their research experiences, initial findings and ideas in a supportive peer-environment. The area of ICT4D includes a wide range of fields of studies. By attending the workshop participants can share and reflect on their research findings as well as on their own experiences in ICT4D research.

The morning session senior academic researcher’s panel is now confirmed and includes: Professor Tim Unwin, UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, Royal Holloway, University of London, Dr. Michael Best, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Dr. Chris Coward, University of Washington.

Format: Participants will be asked to read everyone’s position papers in advance, to maximize face-time at the workshop. The morning session will include presentations of short papers of between 5-10 minutes followed by feedback from both the participants and invited senior academic researchers. The afternoon session of the workshop will revolve around small breakout group discussions, structured around themes to be decided with participants via email prior to the workshop, followed by a closing discussion among all attendees. Intended Audience: The workshop will be open to all “young” researchers in the area of ICTD/ICT4D. We use “young” broadly to reflect the vibrancy of ICTD as a new discipline, in which we strive to create an inclusive workshop atmosphere where all researchers whether they are students, recent Ph.D. graduates or even senior researchers with a track record in other fields who view themselves as “young-at-heart” researchers congregate to learn from one another about how to do research in the nascent field of ICTD. Space is limited and will be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis. The morning session will be more generally across ICTD topics, the afternoon session will have a greater focus, though not restricted to HCI issues.

Submissions: If you’re interested in attending, submit a short position paper (no longer than 4 pages) describing your prior ICTD research experience and your views on the challenges of ICTD research, and mail it in PDF format to yrictd@gmail.com by March 1st for review.

Important Dates:

• Submission of short papers: 1 March 2009
• Notification of acceptance: 15 March 2009
• Workshop: 17 April 2009

Cost: Workshop attendance is free for ICTD2009 conference attendees.

Attendees however have to be registered for ICTD2009 to attend the workshop, or apply for a waiver.

Attendee Sponsorships: There are very limited sponsorships and waivers for workshop participants. If you need these, you have to apply directly through the website at: http://www.ictd2009.org/scholarships.html (the deadline is Feb 25).

Organisers: IPID has 320 members representing 224 universities in 77 countries and is sponsored by SPIDER, the Swedish Program for Information and Communication Technology in Developing Regions. Behind the program stands Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology. For further information about IPID: http://www.humanit.org/PID/ For further information about SPIDER: http://www.spidercenter.org/

GSHCID was formed by participants at the HCID workshop at CHI ’08. It is a virtual group, with biweekly discussions held via teleconference, with participants from North America, Africa and Asia. In each meeting, one person leads the discussion, covering either their work-in-progress research, or presenting research papers or thoughts on issues in ICTD/HCID. Recently, the group has begun inviting ICTD experts to present and discuss their work with the group. To join GSHCID, email gshci4d@googlegroups.com

Contact / Organizing chairs

• Morning Session (IPID): Gudrun Wicander, IPID coordinator, Karlstad University, Sweden Annika Andersson, PhD candidate, Örebro University, Sweden, Mathias Hatakka, PhD candidate, Örebro University, Sweden
• Afternoon Session (GSHCID): Jahanzeb Sherwani, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Matthew Kam, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Divya Ramachandran, Univ of California, Berkeley, USA Tapan Parikh, Univ of California, Berkeley, USA