IPID News: Mars (2) 2009

From IPID

Dear IPID Members, enjoy this latest issue of IPID News! If you have any ICT4D-related news, please send an e-mail to gudrun.wicander@kau.se

Contents 1 NEWS 2 BOOKS 3 CONFERENCES 4 OPEN POSITIONS 5 COURSES/PROGRAMMES

NEWS

• News from IPID*
• Proceedings of The 1st International Conference on M4D Mobile Communication Technology for Development (M4D 2008, General Tracks)

11–12 December, 2008, Karlstad University, Sweden

http://kau.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:133042&rvn=1

• News from infoDev

• infoDev has published a Request for Expressions of Interest for a Survey of ICT for Education in India and South Asia, as part of a series on the status of ICT and education in all developing regions of the world. Earlier studies cover Africa (see: http://www.infodev.org/en/Project.7.html) and the Caribbean (see: http://www.infodev.org/en/Article.336.html). The purpose of this survey is to gather together in a single resource the most relevant and useful information on ICT in education activities in India and South Asia. A copy of the terms of reference is enclosed. The deadline for responses is 7 April 2009.

To find out more and to submit an Expression of Interest, go to the Consultant website (http://www.worldbank.org/wbgeconsultant) and look for selection no. 100021392.

• News from UniPID

(Finnish Universities' Partnership for International Development)

• UniPID Virtual Course on Globalization and Global Ethics

Course: Globalization and Global Ethics Credits: 5 ECTS Time 1.4-31.5.2009 (9 weeks) Organizing university: University of Joensuu Teacher, contact: Professor (emeritus) Reijo E. Heinonen, MSc Jarmo Romppanen Teaching language: English Registration: at the latest 30.3.2009. Students register for the course by sending an email to jarmo.romppanen@joensuu.fi (After having done that, students will receive a key to enter the course in Moodle).

Course content: Concepts, definitions and dimensions of global ethic(s).

Aim: This course aims at acknowledging the genesis of the global ethic discourse as stepping stones towards global ethical responsibility and developing dialogue competence on the basis of global ethic, rules of dialogue and symbol theory. It also aims at developing readiness to differentiate international problems needing moral commitment, to point out ethical preconditions for intercultural learning, and to see the necessity of global ethic for a fair globalization. In addition, the course deals with issues concerning global ethic and environment and global forest ethics. Learning methods: individual tasks, multiple-choice quizzes and writing essays. Study material: Students are expected to gather information on the topic by using given readings and internet-based material. Assessment: grade 1-5. Additional information: jarmo.romppanen@joensuu.fi

BOOKS

• Free downloads

Viral Spiral by David Bollier. www.viralspiral.cc Free Culture by Richard Lessig. www.free-culture.cc. Code Version 2 by Richard Lessig. www.lessig.org

• Handbook of Research on Telecommunications Planning and Management for Business

ISBN: 978-1-60566-194-0; 1,212 pp; March 2009 Published under the imprint Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference) http://www.igi-global.com/reference/details.asp?ID=33137 Edited by: In Lee, Ph.D., Western Illinois University, USA

• To view John Wiley & Sons latest titles:

http://eu.he.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-311247.html http://eu.he.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-311256.html

CONFERENCES

• ECEL 2009 - 8th European Conference on e-Learning

Date: 29-30 October 2009 Place: University of Bari, Italy Submission of papers: 9 April 2009 Information: http://academic-conferences.org/ecel/ecel2009/ecel09-home.htm

Mini Track on eLearning in a global context. Track co-Chairs: Anders Advic and Mathias Hatakka, Örebro University, Sweden.

This mini track is dedicated to research about e-Learning in a global context. Students are no longer restricted by the boarders of their countries to receive education. International and global e-Learning courses and programs are now delivered from respected universities all over the world. The benefits of this are plentiful and of special importance for students from developing countries where education opportunities often are scarce. International degrees are highly sought after in developing countries, but the cost of travelling and living in other countries often restricts these opportunities to students with an already fairly high living standard. Students originating for poorer conditions often miss out on the opportunities and have to rely on highly competitive scholarships. Delivering global and international e-Learning courses has the potential to change this inequality, but global e-Learning is not without its own problems. Issues such as poor infrastructure, low IT literacy, and cultural mismatch are still major obstacles for global education. If e-Learning is going to live up to its potential these challenges needs to be dealt with.

The purpose of this mini track is to share research in the field in order to gain more knowledge on how e-Learning in a global context can be improved. Authors are invited to share their research and experiences from international and global e-Learning. Both empirical research and conceptual articles are being sought.

This mini track seeks to address some of these questions, including: - e-Learning issues specific for development - Challenges with global education - Pedagogical considerations - Reusability, standards and learning objects - Infrastructure and personal pre-requisites - Social and cultural conditions

• IST Africa

Date: 7-9 May 2009 Place: Windhoek Information: http://www.ist-africa.org

• ITU Telcom Africa

Date: 12-15 May 2009 Place: Cairo Information: http://www.itu.int/AFRICA2008

• Cluster of WSIS related events

Date: 13-30 May 2009 Place: Geneva Information:http://www.itu.int/wsis/implementation/cluster.asp?year=2008&month=0&type='alf'&subtype=0

• Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank

Date: 14-15 May 2009 Place: Maputo Information:http://www.afdb.org/portal/page?_pageid=473,26740393&_dad=portal&_ schema=PORTAL

• World Congress on Information and Technology

Date: 18-22 May 2009 Place: Kuala Lumpur Information: http://www.wcit2008.org

• Conference on Information Technology and Economic Development (CITED2009)

Date: 30 July – 1 August 2009 Place: Calabar (the Canaan City), Nigeria Submission of papers: 30 April 2009 Information: http://www.uws.ac.uk/cited2009

The aim of CITED2009 is to present research and best practice in the areas of information technology, management, and their impact on economic development. CITED2009 will consist of workshops, tutorials, trade transactions, keynote speeches, paper presentations, and panel discussions. The event should inspire a fruitful dialogue among practitioners, government officials, scholars, and investors; CITED2009 will address the needs of all participants. Accepted Papers will be published in the CD conference proceedings. Best papers will be considered for publication in the Journal of IT for Development, Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, the International Journal of Knowledge Management, and a proposed book on Managing Information Technology for Economic Development.

The main topics of this conference will include, but not limited to: The digital divide - bridging the gap Human computer interaction Intellectual property rights in technology standardization eContracts Public policy and information technology Systems thinking and practice eLearning Organisation and technology transformation Crisis management Enterprise systems Marketing information systems Spatial technologies Culture-based information systems Knowledge management eProcurement eBusiness Strategic information systems eGovernment Health informatics Global information systems Community networking and information systems Virtual communities mCommerce IT security issues Decision support systems Databases, data mining and data warehousing IT outsourcing Software engineering Requirements elicitation and analysis eSupply chain management eCustomer relationship management eFinance and eBanking

• CATS2009 - 2nd workshop on Culturally-Aware Tutoring Systems Socio-Cultural Issues in Artificial Intelligence in Education in conjunction with AIED2009

Date: 6-7 July 2009 Place: Brighton, UK Submission of papers: 1 May 2009 Information:http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~blanchae/CATS2009

• ICIS – Doctoral Consortium

Date: 11-14 December 2009 Place: The University of Arizona Submission of nominations: 25 May 2009. Information: http://www.icis09.org The International Conference on Information Systems invites nominations for its 2009 Doctoral Consortium. The Doctoral Consortium provides doctoral students working on their dissertation research an opportunity to share and develop their research ideas, explore issues related to academic and research careers in the information systems field, and build relationships with other IS PhD students from around the world. Participation to the Consortium is by invitation only. Each university may submit only one nominee. Ph.D. students currently working on information systems dissertations are eligible for nomination submission. Candidates should successfully defend their dissertation/thesis proposals before December 2009, although they need not have defended their proposals before the submission deadline. Students who will have completed their dissertations by December 2009 will not be accepted. Nominated candidates should intend to pursue an academic career in information systems following the completion of their Ph.D. studies.

• Thirtieth annual International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2009)

“Doing IT Research That Matters,” Date: 15-18 December 2009 Place: Phoenix, Arizona Submission of papers: 5 May 2009 Information: www.icis09.org

• Satellite ICCIR – 09 Workshop - 2nd Workshop on Innovative Mobile Technology & Services for Developing Countries (IMTS-DC'09), in conjunction with International Conference on Computing and ICT Research

Date: 1 August 2009 Place: Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda Submission of papers: 15 April 2009

• PACIS 2009 – Doctoral Consortium

Date: 8-10 July 2009 Place: Hyderabad, India Submission of nominations: 15 April 2009. Information: http://www.isb.edu/citne/pacis2009/Doctoral.html The Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS) invites nominations for the Doctoral Consortium to be held at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, India on July 8-10, 2009. Universities are invited to each nominate one candidate for the consortium. Eligible candidates are students who are currently enrolled as Ph.D. candidates in Information Systems, who have developed a plan for pursuing their dissertation, and would benefit from constructive feedback from expert faculty. The PACIS Doctoral Consortium aims to provide doctoral students in the field of information systems with an opportunity to share their research ideas with other doctoral students and scholars. The consortium will provide students with opportunities to receive high quality feedback and support for their academic work. It will also enable students to network and collaborate with eminent professors and researchers from universities across the globe. Faculty participating are associated with leading institutions in the United States and the Asia-Pacific area, and serve in senior editorial positions in the field’s top journals. This Doctoral Consortium will be a significant event for emerging IS researchers in the Asia Pacific region. Accepted proposals will be published as papers in the PACIS 2009 Doctoral Consortium Proceedings.

• 19th Nordic Workshop on Interorganizational Research

Date: 12-14 August 2009 Place: Jönköping, Sweden Submission of papers: 14 April 2009 Information: http://www.jibs.se/nordic09

• UBICOMP 2009 Workshop: Globicomp - Taking Ubicomp Beyond Developed Worlds

Date: 30 September 2009 Place: Florida, USA Submission of papers: 23 June 2009 Information: http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009 (http://www.ubicomp.org/ubicomp2009/)

Ubicomp - everywhere, everybody technology and systems. But are we really exploring inclusive visions? Is ubicomp for everyone or only the relatively affluent? This workshop is about the billions of people who do not fit the sorts of context mainstream ubicomp has addressed. There are hundreds of millions of users, and billions to come in the next 5 years, in places like India, China and Africa, whose first, and perhaps only, experience of computing will be in the form of mobile and other ubicomp technologies. Many of these users will never live in the sorts of home, or work in the types of office, or daydream in the parks, or take a day-off for the sorts of amusement park envisaged by earlier research.

• The 7th @WAS International Conference on Mobile Computing and Multimedia

(MoMM2009) Date: 14-16 December 2009 Place: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Submission of papers: 3 July 2009 Information: http://www.iiwas.org/conferences/momm2009/

• 6th International Conference on Mobile Technology, Applications and Systems

(ACM Mobility Conference 2009) Date: 2 - 4 September 2009 Place: Nice, France Submission of papers: 30 May 2009 Information: http://www.acmmobility2009.org/

• mLife 2009: Three Conferences and Exhibitions

mSOCIETY 2009: The 2nd International Conference on Mobile Society EURO mGOV 2009: The 4th European Conference on Mobile Government mDEVELOPMENT 2009: The 1st Int. Conference on Mobile Development “Converting impacts of mobile technologies to economical and social welfare” Date: 2 - 4 September 2009 Place: Barcelona, Spain Submission of papers: 1 June 2009 Information: http://www.m4life.org

• 4th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems - MCIS 2009

Conference Theme: Information Society Research, Education, Policy and Practice in the Mediterranean Region Date: 25-27 September 2009 Place: Athens, Greece Submission of papers: 15 April 2009 Information: www.mcis2009.org

• 4th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems

Doctoral and Junior Faculty Consortium Date: 24 September 2009 Place: Athens, Greece Submission of papers: 18 May 2009 Information: http://www.mcis2009.org/

• 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-43)

Date: 5-8 January 2010 Place: Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa, Koloa, Kauai, HI/USA. Submission of papers: 15 June 2009 Information: http://faculty.washington.edu/jscholl/hicss43/

• Informatics and Sustainability 2009

Date: 28 Sep – 2 October 2009 Place: Lübeck University (Germany) Submission of papers: 26 April 2009 Information:

• 4th International Conference on Software and Data Technologies (ICSOFT)

Doctoral Consortium Date: 26-29 July 2009 Place: Sofia, Bulgaria. Submission of papers: 13 May 2009 Information: http://www.icsoft.org/Doctoral_Consortium.htm

• Conference on Development and Information Technologies. Mobile Phones and Internet in Latin America and Africa: What benefits for the most disadvantaged?

Date: 23 - 24 October Place: The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Castelldefels (Barcelona) Submission of papers: 24 April 2009 Information: (http://www.uoc.edu/activitats/jornadaitd/index.html). It will be an opportunity to exchange the results of the empirical research and to debate about the influence of the diffusion of the Information and Communication Technologies, specifically the mobile phones and Internet, they can have in the social and economic development in Latin America and Africa, and specially, among the most vulnerable segments of the population.

• Migrations, interconnection and interdependence
• New communicative habits: families and interpersonal relations
• Technologies and entrepreneurship
• Communications at the bottom of the pyramid: access strategies
• Mobile communications and development: microeconomic perspective
• E-banking, access to financial services, local use and remittances

OPEN POSITIONS

• Work for a non-profit organization in East Africa for 3-6 months [1]

Technoserve largest program is funded by the Gates Foundation, working with coffee farmers' cooperatives in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia using IT to monitor, manage and evaluate the program. e.g. Pentaho BI for reporting, Orbeon XForms for web based data entry and may implement offline data gathering solution using smart phones. Technoserve has an volunteer program, covering travel, accommodation and a local living allowance and could also engage a modestly paid consultant if found the right person to help.

SCHOLARSHIPS

• The Business School of Loughborough University invites applications for up to 9 PhD studentships, commencing in October 2009.

Visit the School’s site at www.lboro.ac.uk/businessschool for information about the Business School and it’s Research Groups. Application deadline: 30 April 2009

• Clemson University invites applications for one (possibly two) doctoral student openings in Management Information Systems (MIS) to begin in fall, 2009.

More information can be found at: http://business.clemson.edu/managemt/Management_PhD/index.html Applicants should electronically submit all applications and related materials to: http://www.grad.clemson.edu/Admission.php

• Call for Applications for Doctoral Research Award & PHD Fellowships

University for Peace - Universite pour la Paix

2009 UPEACE-IDRC Doctoral Research Award & 2009 UPEACE-IDRC PHD Fellowships Application Period: 1 March 2009 to 31 May 2009 For further information for application, please visit www.africa.upeace.org

COURSES/PROGRAMMES

• Distance course in ICT4D at Örebro University, Sweden

Informatics, Master, Second Level, 7.5 higher education credits Swedish Business School at Örebro University, Sweden

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for socio-economic development is increasing in developing countries. The field ICT4D aims at improving people’s lives – e.g. increased freedom, economic growth and educational opportunities – through the use of ICT. This course is intended for students and professionals who would like to deepen their knowledge on ICTs opportunities to foster changes in the world’s developing regions.

Swedish Business School at Örebro University starts a master course in ICT4D this fall. The course is entirely web-based and consists of presentations/lectures and other course materials that are accessed through a Learning Management System (Blackboard) which you will use in the course. This gives you the opportunity to communicate with teachers and fellow students. The course is highly flexible and no physical or synchronous meetings are required in order to allow students from all over the world to take the course.

The course runs from week 36 (2009) to week 03 (2010) at quarter speed (25%). The course is delivered in English and grants the students 7,5 ECTS credits (corresponding to 5 week full time studies)

The course consists of three parts:

• Development theories: This part will give the students background knowledge in development theories - i.e. the student should be able to define and problematize the “D” in ICT4D.
• Technology: This part will give the student knowledge on, and the ability to compare and assess the appropriateness of, different Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) used for development – e.g. radio, television, cellular phones, computers and Internet.
• Application: This part will give the student knowledge on different application areas where ICTs are used in development – e.g. eHealth, eLearning, and eGovernment.

After the course the students should

• be able to understand and analyze theories and practices within ICT4D
• be able to analyze and critically reflect on different technologies used for development
• be able to understand and describe different applications of information- and communication technology (ICT) for development

Application deadline for the course is 14th of April 2009 Information on how to apply: https://www.studera.nu/studera/1608.html

Information about the course: Örebro University: http://glada.oru.se/studieinformation/VisaKursplan?kurskod=IK4016&termin=20092&sprak=en Studera.nu: https://www.studera.nu/aw/freeTextSearchResult.do?period=HT+2009&freeText=20507&page=1&method=execute&origin=1&destination=1

If you have any questions about the course please contact Mathias Hatakka (mathias.hatakka@oru.se)

• The International M.A. in New Media & Digital Culture (NMMA) at the

University of Amsterdam (UvA)

The New Media International MA program at UvA has issued a call for applications for students who would like to begin study in fall 2009. Link to the pdf of the call for applications: http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/fall09cfa/ Application and Deadline: 1 April for Fall 2009. Applicants will be notified around 15 June. See http://www.studeren.uva.nl/application_and_accreditation for details. More Info & Questions: • International M.A. in New Media & Digital Culture - University of Amsterdam: http://www.studeren.uva.nl/ma_new_media/ • Graduate School for Humanities General Information: http://www.hum.uva.nl/gs/ • Tuition and Fees: http://www.studeren.uva.nl/finance

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If you have any ICT4D-related news, please send an e-mail to gudrun.wicander@kau.se

Best wishes, Gudrun Wicander IPID Coordinator