CFP: Workshop: Designing human centred technologies for the developing world

[Kevin Walker]

Call for Participation:

Workshop: Designing human centred technologies for the developing world: HCI
but not as we know it Tue, 4 Sept. 2007 Lancaster, UK 

http://hct4d.blogspot.com/

Part of  the HCI 2007 conference (http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/hci2007/)

Cost: £80 before 5 Aug. (workshop only)

INTRODUCTION

With huge investments being made in ICT for development (ICT4D) and
education (e.g. "$100 laptop," UN programmes etc.) and high expectations 
being raised, it is critical to ensure that ICT developments are in fact
usable, useful, appropriate and well adapted to the communities and contexts
in which they are intended to be used. This requires well designed 
solutions, which in turn requires appropriate human-centred design methods.
However, it is unclear that methods largely developed for and with users in
the developed world will prove appropriate in the developing world.  This 
workshop aims to bring together interested parties and strengthen the
User-centred design for development (UCS4D) community, as well as contribute
to the body of knowledge about designing for and with communities in the 
developing world.

GOALS OF THE WORKSHOP

* Share experiences of Human Centred Design in the developing world;

* Identify key issues and patterns;

* Explore new, alternative and modified methods for human centred and 
participatory design of Development Technologies;

* Develop new partnerships - particularly international partnerships;

* Disseminate learning from this workshop through online and and offline
publication; and 

* Strengthen the HCI in Development Technology community.

THEMES

To participate in this workshop submit a two-page position paper, using the
following format: http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/hci2007/organisers/#templates

Possible themes are:

* Case studies of user-centred design and participatory experiences in the
developing world - both successes and failures; 

* The difficulties of separating development and research objectives;

* Design of educational technology for development;

* Participatory methods from community action, education, agriculture,
technology design, theatre, etc..; 

* Innovative methods for designing for and with communities with diverse
needs; or

* Managing expectations in particpatory design projects.

BEFORE THE WORKSHOP

The workshop organisers invite short position papers. These will be reviewed 
by committee.  Accepted papers will then be made available online on
workshop blog.  Comments on papers will be enabled and participants will be
encouraged to post comments to the blog  Key issues arising from papers and 
comments will be identified prior to the conference.  Outcomes from other
recent workshop will also be linked from the blog and issues for discussion
may also be drawn from there.

AT THE WORKSHOP

Facilitators will make short presentations around the key issues &
challenges identified before the workshop.  Participants will then make
short presentations, and will be encourgaged to address specific comments 
from the blog.  If appropriate permissions are given we will record the
presentations (and/or stream them live using Elluminate if possible) in
order to broaden participation beyond those that are able to travel to the 
conference.  This will be followed by discussion.  Participants will break
in to small groups to discuss a subset of these issues and challenges with a
facilitator..  Each group will summarise its discussions to the workshop as 
a whole.  We will produce a poster and presentation to summarise the
workshop activity and outcomes.

AFTER THE WORKSHOP

The blog will act as a record of the workshop, and also the hub for a
community in UCD4D.  We will collect the output of the workshop and edit
into a journal special issue, or book, as appropriate.  We will also
disseminate our findings in relevant networks, communities and
organisations. 

ORGANISATION

Coordinators:

Andy Dearden (point of contact for communication) is a participatory
designer with a background in human computer interaction. His recent work
has investigated tools to support distributed forms of participation in
design and the design of ICT systems to support 'social action' in voluntary
and community groups, NGOs and 'civil society'.

Lynne Dunckley, Ph.D. (Birmingham), is Professor of Information Technology
at the Institute for IT at Thames Valley University. Prior to her academic
career she worked for central and local government organizations, 
specialising in database design and project management. In addition she has
worked as a usability consultant for cross-cultural design and
interoperability. She has carried out consultancy for numerous e-Commerce 
companies and published work in the Journal of Decision Systems, Interacting
with Computers, Interact, International Ergonomics Applications and major
international conferences in Europe and USA. She is the author of a textbook 
on Multimedia Databases (2003) and a book for database practitioners on
application development using rich media in Oracle (2007). She has chaired
an international conference on the internationalisation of products and 
services.

Rosemary Luckin is Professor of Learner Centred Design at the London
Knowledge Lab.  Prior to this she was director and co-founder of the
Interactive Digital Educational Applications Lab and the Human Centred 
Technology Research group at Sussex. She is an experienced project manager
and has held a range of EU/EPSRC and ESRC grants. She is a member of several
journal editorial boards and conference program committees in the area of 
educational technology, including those of the International Association of
Artificial Intelligence in Education. She has numerous peer reviewed journal
and conference publications and has acted as a consultant to various 
organisations including the BBC and the DFES.  She has worked with schools
in Brazil, has close working relationships with many UK schools and set up
the Sussex Education Skills Exchange to foster exchanges of knowledge and 
skills between with practitioners.

Committee:

Jose.Abdelnour-Nocera, Thames Valley University Souleymane Camara, Thames
Valley University Liz Fearon, Aptivate Cecilia Oyugi, Thames Valley 
University Joshua Underwood, London Knowledge Lab Tim Mwololo Waema,
University of Nairobi Kevin Walker, London Knowledge Lab

DATES

18 July 07 - position paper deadline
30 July 07 - notification of acceptance 
05  Aug 07 - early bird registration deadline conference
26  Aug 07 - presentation slides deadline
04 Sept 07 - workshop

CONTACT

Send position papers and all other enquiries to: 

Kevin Walker
k.walker at ioe.ac.uk
London Knowledge Lab
23-29 Emerald Street
London WC1N 3QS