Apologies for duplicate postings.
CALL FOR PAPERS: Human-Centered Computing in International Development Workshop at CHI '09 Conference (http://www.chi2009.org/) April 4-5, 2009 Boston, Massachusetts, USA From Kansas to Kigali, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have evolved to reach wider audiences in the past few decades, resulting in changes in goals, context, and target groups, as well as ethical contexts. This leads us to ask the critical question of who we are designing for, how, and why. On the one hand, interactive applications have permanently affected the field of Human-computer Interaction, whose concerns were traditionally cognitive. On the other hand, interactive systems are increasingly taken up in the developing world, both by richer urban elites and growing middle classes, and by urban and rural users in more economically marginal areas. These situations involve very different contexts of use, and demand new design solutions. In designing for inclusivity, these ICT tools are of value to the end-user only if they are made relevant. More than ever, therefore, it is important, to cultivate design practices that allow for meaningful embedding of interactive systems in the cultural, infrastructural, and political settings where they will be used. The goal of the workshop is to exchange success/failure stories, methodologies, and best practices, to develop new partnerships, and to learn from each other. The workshop is open to anyone in fields such as Human-Computer Interaction, International Development, Social Sciences, Public policy, Computer Science, Education, Economics, and Healthcare who is interested in contributing to this dialogue. TOPICS Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Sustainability: A key tension between research and development projects is that of developing sustainable projects - when sustainability generally goes well beyond the scope of typical research - Governments, Policies: We are often working in countries that are not our own, and must deal with foreign governments. Selected participants will share insights on working with local governments, importing equipment and securing permission to do research. - Development Theory: Working towards building a common vocabulary, workshop participants with grounding in development theory will be asked to think about what should be considered foundational knowledge for researchers working on human-centered design for international development SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Please send a 2-4 page position paper describing one of the following: * your experience in this area, * your findings, * your interest aligned with the above topics, * methodologies you have used in research or practice that you feel might be relevant in this area, * some other appropriate question you might want to discuss at the workshop, or * a proposal you might have for a collaborative group HCI4D task (i.e. the website or the joint bibliography), which we could debate at the workshop. To participate in this workshop at CHI 2009, e-mail position papers to Nithya Sambasivan at nsambasi at ics.uci.edu Deadline for submissions is 23rd October, 2008. Notification of acceptance is on/around 28th November, 2008. ORGANIZERS Susan Dray (Dray and Associates, Inc., USA) Melissa Ho (University of California, Berkeley, USA) Matthew Kam (Carnegie Mellon University / UC Berkeley, USA) Neesha Kodagoda (Middlesex University, UK) Ann Light (Video Educational Trust/QMUL, UK) Nithya Sambasivan (University of California, Irvine, USA) John C. Thomas (IBM T.J. Watson Research, USA) PROGRAM COMMITTEE Andrew Dearden (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) Jose Abdelnour-Nocera (Thames Valley University, UK) Ban Al-Ani (University of California, Irvine, USA) Michael Best (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) Yishay Mor (London Knowledge Lab, UK) Osvaldo Rodriguez (Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina) Josh Underwood (London Knowledge Lab, UK) Niall Winters (London Knowledge Lab, UK)
