[Telecentres] Call for papers-ICT4D and universities

[Raul Roman]

Information Technologies and International Development (ITID) is a leading MIT Press journal that focuses on the intersection of information and communication technologies (ICTs) with international development. ITID invites submissions for a special issue titled "Information Technology, Higher Education, and Sustainable Development: The Role of Universities in Building Knowledge Societies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America." This special issue will address how universities in developing countries are implementing innovative teaching, research and outreach activities that link ICTs to the development-related needs and activities of different local and national stakeholders, including scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, governments, civil society organizations, and rural communities.  The issue will reflect how universities in developing countries are seeking to contribute to 'ICT for Development' (ICT4D) efforts, the impact of their efforts upon society and universities, and the internal and external challenges they face in realizing a productive and meaningful place in the ICT4D movement.

 

The goal of this ITID issue is to lay a foundation for research and policy making in this area. The issue carries the same title as a conference recently held in Manila (www.cis.washington.edu/manila2005). The Manila conference itself built on previous international meetings at Makerere University (http://www.makerere.ac.ug/dicts/conference), Cornell University (http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/conf/2004/ict), and the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society (http://www.wsis-online.net/smsi/classes/ict4d/events/ict4d-events-282979/event-view) that focused not only on building universities' ICT capacity, but their capacity to leverage ICT to foster social and economic development. For example, some relevant topics could be (a) the institutional capacity of universities to create knowledge tailored to different outside stakeholders; (b) the uses and effects of university involvement in community projects such as telecenters; (c) the creation of university programs that prepare students to become professionals in ICT-enabled development, or (d) efforts by universities to engage in local, national, or international policy-relevant research on emerging ICT issues. 

 

The topic of this ITID issue is broad and inherently multidisciplinary. The editors welcome a diverse pool of submissions from different fields such as political science, information science, communication research, education, rural sociology, computer science, telecommunications, economics, public health, and public policy, among others. 

 

The papers selected will present novel research that is theoretically grounded and methodologically sound, as well as those that relate to policy development and practical on-the-ground approaches to realizing the Millennium Development Goals and creating the building blocks of knowledge societies. Potential contributors should submit a 750-word abstract of the proposed article by May 31st, 2005 to: itid-ed at mit.edu. Visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/itid for specific instructions for authors.

 

The guest editors of this ITID issue (in alphabetical order) are: Royal D. Colle (Cornell University), Christopher T. Coward (University of Washington), Colin M. Maclay (Harvard Law School), and Raul Roman (University of Washington).

 
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