The call for papers for the ICTD2012 conference has just been released – full details given below:
CALL FOR PAPERS
Fifth IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA USA
Conference dates: March 12-16, 2012
Paper submission deadline: July 22, 2011 (11:59pm UTC)
Conference website: http://www.ictd2012.org
Contact us at: program@ictd2012.org
Twitter: @ICTD2012 Facebook: ICTD 2012 Atlanta
ICTD provides an international forum for scholarly researchers exploring the
role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social,
political, and economic development. The conference program and accepted
papers will reflect and deepen the multidisciplinary nature of ICTD
research, with anticipated representation from anthropology, computer
science, communication, design, economics, electrical engineering,
geography, information science, political science, public health, sociology,
and so on.
Submitted papers are subject to a rigorous and selective double-blind peer
review; accepted papers will appear in electronic conference proceedings and
will be archived in the ACM and/or IEEE systems. A subset of the papers will
also appear in a special issue of Information Technologies & International
Development.
ICTD2012 is the fifth of an ongoing series of conferences occurring every
one-and-a-half years; previous conferences have taken place in: Berkeley, CA
(USA) ICTD 2006; Bangalore (India) ICTD 2007; Doha (Qatar) ICTD 2009; and London (United Kingdom) 2010.
For the purposes of this conference the term “ICT” comprises electronic
technologies for information processing and communication, as well as
platforms that are built on such technologies. “Development” means
international development, including, but not restricted to, poverty
alleviation, education, agriculture, healthcare, general communication,
gender equality, governance, infrastructure, environment and sustainable
livelihoods. Papers considering novel designs, new technologies, project
assessments, policy analyses, impact studies, theoretical contributions,
social issues around ICT and development, and so forth will be considered.
Well-analyzed negative results from which generalizable conclusions can be
drawn are also sought.
Relevant papers reporting high-quality original research are solicited. Full
papers will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary panel, and evaluated
according to their novel research contribution, methodological soundness,
theoretical framing and reference to related work, quality of analysis, and
quality of writing and presentation. Authors are encouraged (but not
required) to address the diversity of approaches in ICTD research by
providing context, implications, and actionable guidance to researchers and
practitioners beyond the authors’ primary domains.
Only original, unpublished, full research papers in English will be
considered. Submissions not meeting a minimum bar of academic research
writing will be rejected without full review. Papers should contain a
maximum of 8000 words. Reviews are double blind, so papers should not
include author names or other information that would identify the authors
(references to previous work by the authors should be in the third person).
Authors should follow IEEE formats and styles
http://www.ieee.org/documents/stylemanual.pdf. Samples of this are also
available in PDF at http://www.ictd2012.org/ICTD2012_sample.pdf and MS Word
http://www.ictd2012.org/ICTD2012_sample.doc formats. Authors will be
required to sign a copyright release for publication in the conference
proceedings. Additional submission details will be posted on the conference
website at http://www.ictd2012.org, as the information becomes available.
As a new opportunity for 2012, we are offering a peer mentorship program for paper submissions. Submit your paper early (by May 1st, 2011) to this
program and get feedback from peer mentors ahead of the normal submission process and June deadline. See http://www.ictd2012.org/mentorship for details.
Atlanta is a world-class city with a rich and passionate history. Spring
comes early to Atlanta; March is likely to be sunny, crisp, and pleasant.
The conference venue is the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center
(http://www.gatechhotel.com/). Georgia Tech is one of the top research
universities in the United States, distinguished by its commitment to
improving the human condition through advanced science and technology.
The conference website is http://www.ictd2012.org. Follow us on Twitter
@ICTD2012, or visit our Facebook page at “ICTD 2012 Atlanta”.
Contact us at program@ictd2012.org
Important dates:
Peer review mentor program submission deadline: May 1, 2011
Paper submission deadline: July 22, 2011
Acceptance notifications: September 16, 2011
Camera-ready papers due: January 16, 2012
Conference dates: March 12-16, 2012
Program Committee Chairs
Jonathan Donner, Microsoft Research India
Beki Grinter, Georgia Institute of Technology
Gary Marsden, University of Cape Town
General Conference Chairs
Michael Best, Georgia Institute of Technology
Ellen Zegura, Georgia Institute of Technology
This began with a debate on the motion that This house believes that the use of mobile supported social media is an effective means of promoting democracy. Breakfast planning, led to a slight change of schedule! So, the session began with Mario Maniewicz (Chief of Department, Enabling Environment and E-applications, ITU) providing an overview of some of the issues surrounding this complex subject. Then the debate began in earnest. Katrin Verclas (Co-Founder and Editor of MobileActive.org) set the ball rolling arguing vehemently in favour of the motion, to be followed by a sound rebuttal by Adam Salkeld (Head of Programme, Tinopolis). Then the real challenge – both for me and the audience! To balance things up, I filled in the gap by seconding the motion in favour – even though I would have preferred to speak against the motion. Half way through, when I was arguing that anarchy is the only true form of democracy, I suddenly realised that one might say things that one does not necessarily actually mean when one is debating. My short intervention should have had a health warning! And the debate concluded with a brilliant tour-de-force by Alan Fisher (Senior Correspondent, Washington DC, al Jazeera). After numerous interventions from the floor, the final vote (including contributions by Tweets) was 21 in favour and 19 against! Thanks to Caitlin Bentley so much for video streaming the debate and managing the Twitter feed!
After the ‘refreshments’ break, we broke up into small discussion groups, each chaired by one of the speakers, to explore the policy implications of four of the most important themes to emerge from the debate: access (chaired by Mario), privacy and security (chaired by Katrin), the relevance of historical sociology of technology and democracy (chaired by Adam), and ICTs against democracy: the ‘dark side’ (chaired by Alan).
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