IPID 4th Annual Conference 2009 / ICT4D Conference London 2009

The 2009 Annual Conference of the International Network for Postgraduate Students in the Area of ICT4D will be held at Royal Holloway, University of London on 11th and 12th September 2009, hosted by the ICT4D Collective and UNESCO Chair in ICT4D (http://www.ict4d.org.uk).

Conference format

In line with previous IPID events, the conference is intended to be informal. Its main purpose is twofold:

• To let postgraduate students present short papers about their research in a supportive environment where they can gain positive feedback from other participants; and

• To provide an opportunity to discuss key themes of interest to ICT4D postgraduates. The conference organisers would be pleased to hear from potential participants about the themes they would like to have discussed.

Senior Panel

A number of experienced senior researchers will participate in the conference and will provide comments on the presentations. The seniors are as follows:

• Tim Unwin, UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, Professor of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

• Erkki Sutinen, Professor of Computer Science and Educational technology, Head of department, Joensuu University, Finland

• Jarkko Suhonen, Joensuu University, Finland

• John-Sören Pettersson, Professor of Information Systems, Dean at Faculty for Economics, Communication and IT, Karlstad University, Sweden

• Robert Burnett, Professor of Media and Communication, Vice Dean at Faculty for Economics, Communication and IT, Karlstad University, Sweden

• Christian Christensen, Ass. Professor of Media and Communication, Director for HumanIT, Karlstad University, Sweden

• Åke Grönlund, Professor of Information Systems, Örebro University, Sweden

Registration and conference fee

To register for the conference and submit offers of papers and topics for themed discussions, please complete the registration form now available at http://www.humanit.org/PID/wiki/index.php/ICT4D_Symposium_2009:_Registration

All enquiries should be directed to Uduak Okon (u.akpan-okon@rhul.ac.uk).

A fee of £20 will be charged to cover lunches, refreshments and materials.

Travel and Accommodation

The conference will be held at the splendid Royal Holloway, University of London campus, which is situated only 15 minutes from London’s Heathrow Airport, and 40 minutes by train from central London. Limited bed and breakfast accommodation in the Founder’s Building in single rooms with shared facilities is available on campus (at £28.70 a head B&B). Delegates preferring to make their own arrangements can avail themselves of a range of local bed and breakfast establishments and more expensive hotels in the vicinity.

Paper presentations and themed discussions

In order to maximise the number of presentations, each will be limited to a maximum of 15 minutes including questions. If more than 32 offers of papers are received, we will run parallel sessions.

It is envisaged that there will be 8 themed discussions on aspects of ICT4D research practice.  These will run in parallel, so that smaller group interaction will be possible. Suggested themes include:

• Managing your supervisor

• Being multidisciplinary

• Combining theory and practice

• Writing ICT4D

• Working in partnership

We welcome other suggested topics for themed discussion.

Sponsorship

Participants affiliated with a Swedish University can apply for funding to gudrun.wicander@kau.se in support of their attendance. Application for funding closes at 15th of July. All applications are dealt with on a “first come, first served-basis”.

Workshop team

Members of the ICT4D Collective with prime responsibility for delivering the conference will be Tim Unwin and Uduak Okon. Other colleagues involved in managing the event will be David Hollow, Ugo Vallauri and Win Tun. Gudrun Wicander, Annika Andersson, Mathias Hatakka, Ismael Peña-López and Marcus Duveskog from IPID will also be assisting with the conference preparations.

For further information please see: