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From the News Desk
Friday, 1. September 2006
Microsoft Research India Partners with the UCB to Showcase ICT
Can existing technologies be adapted to meet the diverse needs of people living in developing countries, where local languages vary, literacy is low and access to electrical power, not to mention bandwidth, is limited? Or are new technologies needed instead? Can lessons learned in one part of the world be transferred to other regions?
These are just some of the questions Microsoft Research India, one of five Microsoft Research labs worldwide, attempts to address in its research. They are also the questions that nearly 200 academic and industry researchers and students from around the world are gathering to discuss today at the International Conference on Information and Communications Technology and Development (ICTD) 2006. The first in what will be a series of such conferences, ICTD 2006 was jointly developed by Microsoft Research India and the University of California, Berkeley.
Projects focusing on designing information and communication technology (ICT) for developing countries have come to the forefront in the last decade. Public, private and nonprofit organizations are engaging in a wide range of initiatives, from setting up shared-access PCs in rural villages to integrating mobile phones into rural agricultural supply chains. Despite the boom in activity, scientific research in this area is scarce.
Kentaro Toyama, assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India, and AnnaLee Saxenian, dean and professor of the School of Information, University of California, Berkeley, talked a year and a half ago about the need to bring together a multidisciplinary community of people doing academic research in ICT for developing economies. Both were enthusiastic about the idea of organizing a series of conferences that would enable such a community.
“Conferences and workshops that bring together nonprofits, governments and large international organizations to discuss ICT for developing countries are common, but they’re focused on aspects other than scholarly research,” says Toyama. "By providing a venue for academic researchers, we hope to bring academic rigor to ICT projects."
Microsoft Research India and the University of California at Berkeley founded the ICTD conference. Co-sponsors and co-organizers include Siemens Corporate Technology, China; The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology; and ACM-SIGCAS: Special Interest Group on Computers and Society; and Carnegie Mellon University.
Related Links
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/ictd2006/
These are just some of the questions Microsoft Research India, one of five Microsoft Research labs worldwide, attempts to address in its research. They are also the questions that nearly 200 academic and industry researchers and students from around the world are gathering to discuss today at the International Conference on Information and Communications Technology and Development (ICTD) 2006. The first in what will be a series of such conferences, ICTD 2006 was jointly developed by Microsoft Research India and the University of California, Berkeley.
Projects focusing on designing information and communication technology (ICT) for developing countries have come to the forefront in the last decade. Public, private and nonprofit organizations are engaging in a wide range of initiatives, from setting up shared-access PCs in rural villages to integrating mobile phones into rural agricultural supply chains. Despite the boom in activity, scientific research in this area is scarce.
Kentaro Toyama, assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India, and AnnaLee Saxenian, dean and professor of the School of Information, University of California, Berkeley, talked a year and a half ago about the need to bring together a multidisciplinary community of people doing academic research in ICT for developing economies. Both were enthusiastic about the idea of organizing a series of conferences that would enable such a community.
“Conferences and workshops that bring together nonprofits, governments and large international organizations to discuss ICT for developing countries are common, but they’re focused on aspects other than scholarly research,” says Toyama. "By providing a venue for academic researchers, we hope to bring academic rigor to ICT projects."
Microsoft Research India and the University of California at Berkeley founded the ICTD conference. Co-sponsors and co-organizers include Siemens Corporate Technology, China; The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology; and ACM-SIGCAS: Special Interest Group on Computers and Society; and Carnegie Mellon University.
Related Links
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/ictd2006/
