L I R N E . N E T

DIRSI network members Hernan Galperin, Roxana Barrantes and Amy Mahan (also LIRNE.NET coordinator), will participate in a panel entitled “Are new communication technologies reducing or increasing inequalities?” in the XXVIII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association – LASA 2009 [June 11-14, 2009; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]. “Rethinking inequalities” is the main theme of this edition.

Saturday June 14, 2009 – 9:00 – 10:45 am

Hernan Galperin [Chair]

Presenters:

1. Hernan Galperin, Roxana Barrantes
Can the poor afford mobile telephony? Evidence from Latin America

2. Amy Mahan
Measuring the impact of access to ICT infrastructure in Latin America

3. Antonio Jose Botelho
New communication technologies and MSME’s in Latin America and the Caribbean

4. Sebastian Ureta
Jóvenes y tecnologías móviles en Santiago de Chile

5. Fernando Jose Barrio
The digital paradox in Latin America: The simultaneous pursuit of policies facilitating and restricting access to digital information in the region

Rohan Samarajiva,Executive Director of LIRNEasia, is an invited session speaker at the International Institute of Communications Annual Conference 2008: “Trends in Global Communications: Capturing the High Ground in an Uncertain World.” His presentation is entitled, ‘“Small Screen, Big Scream: How much has the mobile really delivered, how much more to come?”

The event is co-hosted by the Broadcasting Authority and the Office of the Telecommunications Authority, Hong Kong, 3-4 November.

Download the full conference programme

LIRNEasia is organising the pre-conference event, Mobile 2.0: Beyond voice? [20-21 May 2009, Chicago, USA], for the 2009 Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) [21-25 May 2009, Chicago, USA]. A call for papers is being issued for the pre-conference event.

Mobile phones are becoming increasingly important in bringing people into the Information Society. It is widely accepted that the inhabitants of the future household will carry mobile devices that will be capable of voice and data communication, information retrieval and forms of entertainment consumption. Mobiles are now (and will increasingly become) payment devices that can also send, process and receive voice, text as well as images; in the next few years they will also be capable of information-retrieval and publishing functions normally associated with the Internet. Through such services and applications, industry experts predict that many in emerging markets will experience the Internet, or ‘elements’ of the Internet for the first time through a mobile phone, rather than a PC; mobile payments, mobile social networking, SMS voting are just a few examples of some of these services and applications.

Deadline for abstracts: 31 October 2008.
Please send abstract, along with your name and contact information to zainudeen [at] lirne.net. Accepted abstracts will be notified by 21 November 2008. Final papers will be due by 1 April 2009.

[More info next page.]

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[13-15 October] Natasha Udu-gama, LIRNEasia’s HazInfo Project Dissemination Manager, will make a presentation at the Workshop Disaster Management and Space Technology – Bridging the Gap. This event is part of the Second International United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER), being held in Bonn, Germany.

Click here to read more about LIRNEasia participation in the workshop.

Click here to download the workshop announcement.

More information about the UN-SPIDER programme.

The Center for Communication, Media and Information Technologies (CMI), of the Copenhagen Institute of Technology (CIT), Aalborg University, Denmark, will host its First International Conference on Converging Mobile Media on 28 November 2008. The conference is organized in cooperation with the Advanced technology network on Mobile Systems, CTiF Copenhagen, and CMI’s CAMMP Project.

William Melody, founder of LIRNE.NET, will deliver the closing comments for the conference (see the full programme in the rest of this entry).

Click here for the conference website.

Click here for conference registration

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