[AISWorld] HICSS Call for papers: Emerging Technologies and Innovations for Development

[Sajda Qureshi]

Mini-track: Emerging Technologies and Innovations for Development

Call for papers


Emerging technologies, such as mobile payment systems have been seen to promote income generation among entrepreneurs in Africa and Asia. In recent years, the majority of innovations in technology are taking place in countries previously considered to be at the fringes of Development. China has overtaken the USA as the country with the largest number of internet users and has as many or more mobile phone users than the whole of Europe. The majority of users in mobile payments are in Kenya, and such mobile applications are fueling its growth and that of countries around it. Countries such as Uganda have consistently seen high growth rates and have utilized innovations to address problems in areas such as healthcare. Mobile payment systems fuel entire agriculture supply chains. Latin American countries are innovatively applying emerging technologies to support new industries such as wheat farming in Brazil, and salmon farming in Chile. Small Island States which suffer the most from rising sea levels due to climate change are pursuing partnerships and policies to transfer technology in areas such as global health and agriculture; to sustain their fragile economies through natural disasters. Such countries are increasingly relying on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for disaster forecasting, monitoring, and recovery.  There are also efforts to use innovations in ICTs to enhance citizen engagement and empowerment.



The implications of innovations in mobile technologies have meant that for every 100 cellphones in a typical developing country, GDP grows by a factor of 0.8 (Economist 2009). According to the World Bank there is growth by a factor of 3.4 between businesses in a typical developing country which use ICT and those that do not. This difference amounts to a 750% growth in businesses that adopt ICTs compared to those that do not. The same study showed an increase in profitability by 113% and labour productivity of 56%. The global market for IT based services has been estimated to be approximately $800 billion. Only about a third of this potential has been realized (World Bank 2012, p.16). In this sense, ICTs can be employed to bring about increased competitiveness if their adoption enables businesses to create new jobs, increase productivity and sales through access to new markets and administrative efficiencies. These outcomes can be observed through measurable improvements in the lives of people living with limited resources to sustain themselves.



This mini-track invites submissions that are theoretically and empirically sound while offering implications for practice. Topics include but are not limited to:



1.      Affordable and accessible broadband connectivity - TV White Space

2.      Involvement of youths in innovative solutions

3.      New developments in virtual currencies e.g. Bitcoin

4.      Innovations in fighting child exploitation and bullying over the internet

5.      Technologies for Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) Markets

6.      Frugal innovations and applications

7.      Global telecommunication infrastructures for development

8.      Applications to support Entrepreneurship and business growth such as micro-finance, micro-insurance and crowdfunding.

9.      Mobile payments systems and market access such as MPesa penetration and growth of businesses

10.  Cybercafe's, tele-centers and community based ICTs effects on the lives of people

11.  Green Information Technology

12.  Cloud computing for development

13.  Policy implications for stimulating the growth of ICTs

14.  Governance models (national and international) for emerging technologies

15.  Policy, legal, and regulatory implications for adopting and using emerging ICTs to advance development objectives.

16.  Implications of emerging ICTs for security, privacy, transparency, and citizen empowerment.

17.  Emerging technologies and applications to provide information on climate change and disaster forecasting, monitoring, and recovery

18.  Using ICTs to support responses to conflict and violence.

19.  Innovative uses of emerging technologies to promote literacy

20.  Effects of ICT adoption on Social and human development

21.  Climate change and disaster recovery technologies and applications

22.  Healthcare applications to combat the spread of infectious diseases such as mobile health, healthcare social networks and health information applications

23.  Community health informatics and automated healthcare services

Theoretical, conceptual and empirical papers are welcome. Submissions that include theory development, frameworks and models for studying and applying emerging technologies are encouraged.  For empirical papers, field studies, case studies, action research, innovative online data collection methods, and appropriate quantitative techniques are strongly recommended. Papers submitted should explicitly state their research methods.

Dates For Submission to HICSS-49 are as follows:

June 15: Deadline to submit full manuscripts for review. Review is double-blind; therefore this submission must be without author names.
Aug 15: Review System emails Acceptance Notices to authors. At least one author of each accepted paper must attend the conference. All travel guarantees - including visa or fiscal/ funding procedures - should begin immediately after you receive the notification of acceptance. Make sure your server accepts the address from our review system.
Sep 15: Early Registration fee deadline. (Fees will increase on Sept 16 and Dec 1.) At least one author of each paper should register by Sept 15 in order secure publication in the Conference Proceedings. Add author names, and submit Final Paper for Publication to the Submission site (not previous review site).
Oct 15: Papers without at least one registered author will be removed from the Proceedings; authors will be so notified.

Outstanding papers accepted in the mini-track can be fast-tracked for review consideration by and possible publication in the Information Technology for Development Journal (ITD)

Mini-track Chairs:

Sajda Qureshi
Director, Information Technology for Development Cloud Computing Lab
Professor
College of Information Science & Technology, University of Nebraska-Omaha
6001 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE 68182-0116, USA
Phone: +1 (402) 554-2837, Fax: +1 (402) 554-3400
Email: squreshi at mail.unomaha.edu<mailto:squreshi at mail.unomaha.edu>

Gerald Grant
Director, Ph.D. Program
Director of the Centre for Information Technology, Organizations, and People (CITOP)
Associate Professor
Sprott School of Business, Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6
Phone: 613-520-2600 x8006, Fax:  613-520-4427
Email: gerald.grant at carleton.ca


Anthony Ming
Advisor (ICT), Governance and Natural Resources Advisory Services Division
Commonwealth Secretariat
Marlborough House, Pall Mall,  London SW1Y 5HX. United Kingdom
Tel:  +44 20 7747 6359  Fax: Direct  +44 20 7004 3621  General: +44 20 7747 6335
email: a.ming at commonwealth.int
http://www.thecommonwealth.org>