L I R N E . N E T

The organizers of the 3rd IEEE/ ACM International Conference on ICT and Development, ICTD2009 Conference (17-19 April 2009 at the Carnegie-Mellon campus in Doha, Qatar), would like to spur reflective dialogue among researchers and between researchers and development practitioners. Therefore a small number of panels will be chosen to be added to the program.

Panel proposals are invited that will add to the emerging ICTD discipline by having multiple points-of-view reflect on issues that affect the practice of ICTD research and its relationship to development practice. Therefore key assessment criteria we will use to evaluate the panel proposals are:

1. Does it reflect on a novel or unresolved issue in the practice of ICTD research?
2. Does it reflect on a novel or unresolved issue in disseminating or scaling the results of ICTD research into general practice?
3. Does it introduce challenges in the practice of development that ICTD research has yet to address adequately?

Deadline for proposals: 2 November 2009.

Click here to go to the ICTD2009 conference website.
Click here for author instructions.

See also post on Richard Heek’s IEEE Computer article on ICT4D 2.0.

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The Journal of Community Informatics (a global e-journal) is highlighting Wireless Networking for Communities, Citizens and the Public Interest. The first part of the special issue is devoted to thematic papers on issues concerned with community wireless applications. The second section, Notes from the Field, presents a series of case studies and assessments of community wireless projects.

“The papers in this special issue demonstrate that community-based approaches to Wifi development are part of a broader integration of technology, organizational capacity, and local culture. Social goals are part of most community Wifi projects, and integrating these goals and the technical structures of Wifi networks is part of what makes many community Wifi projects successful” (from the Introduction to the special issue by guest editors, Alison Powell & Sascha D. Meinrath).

Click here to go to Special Issue: Wireless Networking for Communities, Citizens and the Public Interest, The Journal of Community Informatics, Vol. 4 No. 1 (2008).

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Richard Heek’s article, ICT4D 2.0 - The Next Phase of Applying ICT for International Development, in the June 2008 (Vol. 41, No. 6) issue of IEEE’s Computer presents a coherent trajectory of the history and evolution of ICT4D and then casts into the emerging challenges and possibilities for the next development phase.

There is no sharp dividing line that lets us say, “ICT4D 1.0 stopped here; ICT4D 2.0 began here.” On the ground, there is a sense of evolution, not discontinuity. And yet … something messy, fuzzy but new, is emerging. It makes sense to see what happens if we give this a label.

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